Gang member convicted of murdering mother and 2-year-old child
Following three weeks of trial, a federal jury in Central Islip, N.Y. returned a verdict convicting MS-13 street gang member Adalberto Ariel Guzman, also known as “Gringo,” on federal criminal charges, including murder, conspiracy to commit murder and firearms offenses, in connection with the execution-style murders of a mother and her 2-year-old son.
At trial, the government proved that defendant Guzman carried out the execution-style murders of Vanessa Argueta, a 19-year-old woman, and Diego Torres, her 2-year-old son, in Central Islip on Feb. 5, 2010. The bodies of Argueta and Torres were found in a secluded wooded area in Central Islip. Argueta had been shot in the head and chest, and Torres had been shot twice in the head.
The evidence introduced at trial established that Guzman fired the fatal shot to Torres’s head, and after committing the murders, he and two of his co-conspirators fled to El Salvador. Guzman was arrested on May 17, 2010, in Miami when he attempted to return to the United States.