A pair of Queens gangbangers have been found guilty of executing a man they believed was an MS-13 member as he sat in the back of a taxi.
Herberth “Kepa” Rodríguez, 33, and Elias “Rebelde” Martínez Villanueva, 40, both members of the 18th Street gang — a bitter rival of MS-13 — pulled up on a motorbike and blasted Diego Vanegas Vasquez through the taxi’s window at a red light on Nov. 1, 2020.
On Friday, a federal jury in Brooklyn found the duo guilty of murder in aid of racketeering and Rodriguez guilty to an earlier attempted murder as well as narcotics trafficking and ammo possession after a three-week trial.
Both face mandatory life sentences.
“I just blew up a mierda,” Rodriguez boasted in a text the day after the killing, referring to the term “mierda seca,” which translated to “dried feces,” an insult the gang uses to describe members of MS-13.
“He was in the back of the taxi that’s where I hit him,” Rodriguez texted.
Jurors saw those texts, as well as surveillance video of the killing.
Court evidence
Rodriguez and Villanueva pulled up on a motorbike and blasted Diego Vanegas Vasquez through the taxi’s window at a red light on Nov. 1, 2020. (Court evidence)
“In committing the murder of Diego Vanegas Vásquez and other acts of brazen gang violence, the defendants terrorized a community in and around Roosevelt Avenue in Queens that they claimed was their territory,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said. “(Friday’s) verdict proves how wrong and misguided they are.”
Rodriguez first targeted a man named Juan Valdez on Oct. 10, 2020, because he believed Valdez disrespected the 18th Street Gang.
Valdez had gotten the better of another member of the gang during a fistfight earlier in the day near Roosevelt Ave. and 83rd St., then tried to leave the area.
But another associate of the gang called for backup while Valdez was trying to ride away, and Rodriguez, who was nearby, grabbed a gun hidden beneath a flower stand outside a bodega and came running.
Rodríguez opened fire on Valdez’s vehicle but missed Valdez as he drove away.
Rodriguez’s aim improved on November 1, 2020, the day he and Villanueva killed the 27-year-old Vanegas Vasquez.
Man Shot And Killed In Queens
Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News
Police investigate the shooting of Diego Vanegas Vasquez on Broadway near 81st St. in Queens on November 1, 2020. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
The victim was riding in a cab near 83rd St. and Roosevelt Ave. in Jackson Heights, and had picked up his cousin, then a woman he knew, but when the woman started arguing with him, his cousin took off. The woman also wanted to leave, so she asked the cab to take her to Broadway and Britton Ave., leaving Vasquez as the only passenger.
Not long after she left, Rodriguez and Villanueva pulled up to the cab on an electric scooter as it was stopped at a red light on 81st St. and Broadway.
Rodriguez fired six shots, killing Vanegas Vásquez, and the duo sped off.
“Kepa fired his gun into the back seat of the taxi. A bullet tore through Diego’s heart and lungs. Kepa continued shooting even after the taxi drove off. Another bullet ripped through Diego’s body,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Brachah Goykadosh said in her opening argument. “Kepa and Rebelde killed Diego. They did it for their gang, the 18th Street Gang.”