Alleged MS-13 gang member Anthony Gutierrez Meza sentenced for killing Estiven Abrego Gomez

Juan Salazar stood in a courtroom in Riverhead on Tuesday and said he had waited seven years for the moment — to confront one of the killers of his 18-year-old stepson.

He was at the sentencing of an alleged MS-13 gang member, Anthony Gutierrez Meza, 25, whom prosecutors said took part in the brutal killing of Estiven Abrego Gomez of Greenlawn in 2016.

Abrego Gomez’s mutilated body was found at a Little League complex in Greenlawn. His hands were nearly amputated. A flurry of blade injuries left him barely recognizable, prosecutors said.

Meza, formerly of Valley Stream, was given a 22-year sentence on Tuesday after taking a last-minute plea deal in May on a reduced charge of first-degree manslaughter. He had been facing a trial for murder and a possible sentence of life in prison.

Salazar said he found it hard to believe someone could do what Meza admitted.

“It’s very painful to think there are human beings like you, capable of doing so much damage,” Salazar told the court in Spanish. “It took six years and 325 days to have you face-to-face, to be able to tell you are the biggest monster I’ve ever seen in my life.”

He added that his stepson “was just a boy. He didn’t deserve to die, much less in the way you killed him. He had his whole life ahead of him, with so many dreams and hopes, dreams that left with him the day you killed him.”

Meza did not comment at the sentencing, which was handed down by Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei in Riverhead.

Meza was charged in March 2019 in the killing, tracked down by authorities in Virginia, where he was living, some two-and-a-half years after the attack.

Mazzei had previously informed him he may be deported to his native El Salvador after he serves his sentence.

The victim was killed because Meza and other gang members thought he belonged to a rival gang, prosecutors said.

They alleged the men had seen the victim flashing 18th Street Gang signs on social media before they killed him.

Meza lured Abrego Gomez out of his home on Aug. 19, 2016, asking him through Facebook messaging to meet up to smoke marijuana, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney.

Meza had previously requested permission to kill the victim, which was granted by a higher-ranking MS-13 gang member who did not participate in the attack, Tierney said.

In the park, in the early hours of Aug. 20, Meza and other gang members took turns “hitting the victim with the bat, stabbing, and slicing him with the knives, and chopping at him with the machete until they were satisfied that he was dead,” Tierney said in a statement.

Then they fled.

Abrego Gomez’s body was found later by a passerby next to a concession stand at the Little League complex. The passerby flagged down a passing motorist, who called police.

During the plea hearing, Meza admitted being at Greenlawn Park that night with the intent to kill Abrego Gomez.

 “There is no reasonable explanation that could ever justify this defendant’s conduct,” Tierney said. “However, the defendant’s actions are made even more senseless given that he took the life of the victim for no other reason than to advance his position in the MS-13 gang.” 

Two other gang members, Elmer Gilberto Santos Contreras, who was arrested with Meza in 2019, and Carlos Lopez-Campos, whose arrest came more than a year later, in October 2020, have pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. 

Salazar told the court that his stepson had dreams of becoming an electrician, starting a family, and buying a big house.

“May God forgive you for all the damage you have caused us, and for what you did to our son,” he told Meza. “We give thanks to God that you won’t be able to return and hurt anyone else because finally there will be justice.”