Former Brentwood gang leader pleads guilty in 2 murders

The former head of the Brentwood chapter of the MS-13 street gang pleaded guilty Wednesday to taking part in two murders in Brentwood, authorities said.

Hector Torres, 22, who headed Brentwood Locos Salvatrucha, admitted to participating in the killing of a fellow gang member in 2010 and the 2011 killing of a member of the rival Latin Kings. He pleaded guilty to two counts of murder in the aid of racketeering and faces life in prison.

"During my membership in the MS-13 gang, I participated in a number of crimes, including the . . . murder of Rigoberto Gomez [and] Juan Rosario," Torres told U.S. District Judge Joseph Bianco in Central Islip.

Gomez was marked for death because, though a member of the MS-13, he was believed to have violated the rules by cooperating with local law enforcement, Torres said.

In August 2010, Torres said, he and another MS-13 member saw Gomez, 19, of Bay Shore, on the street in Brentwood and lured him into Freeman Avenue Park, ostensibly to smoke marijuana.

After they smoked pot and were walking out of the park, Torres said he shot Gomez twice in the head.

In the case of Rosario, Torres said that in April 2011 he and other MS-13 members went driving around Brentwood with a newly initiated member, trying to find a member of another gang so that the new initiate "could earn his quota by killing a rival gang member," Torres said.

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Torres said he and the MS-13 members, including the new member, saw Rosario, 18, of Brentwood, and two other individuals. Torres said he parked the car and watched as the new MS-13 member got out of the car and shot Rosario in the head with a .38-caliber revolver.

Torres also pleaded guilty to attempted murder in a March 2010 case. In that case, Torres said he and another MS-13 member attempted to kill a member of the Latin Kings identified in court only as "King Blast." According to Torres, his gun jammed, but the other MS-13 member shot the Latin King in the back, wounding him.

The other members of MS-13 who participated in the cases are either awaiting trial or have pleaded guilty in the cases, which were investigated by the FBI's Long Island Gang Task Force, according to court records.

Torres' attorney could not be reached. Eastern District federal prosecutor John Durham declined to comment.