MS-13 Member Convicted In LI Psychiatric Center Assault Faces 52 Years In Prison: DA

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — One of the seven MS-13 gang members who attacked a teenage boy in 2024 was sentenced to 52 years in prison, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney announced Wednesday.

Yeison "Yerba" Chavez Campos, 23, of Huntington Station, was convicted in July of first-degree gang assault, second-degree kidnapping and other charges, Tierney said. He also faces five years of post-release supervision, the DA said.

Chavez Campos was in the United States illegally at the time of the attack on a 15-year-old at the Pilgrim State Mental Facility in Brentwood that left the child unconscious, Tierney said. A detainer was lodged by ICE to deport Chavez Campos after he serves his sentence, the DA said.

Chavez Campos is the final one of the seven members and associates of the Huntington Criminal Locates Salvatrucha of "HCLS" clique of the MS-13 street gang convicted in the attack, the DA said.

"This brutal attack should not have happened," Tierney said in a news release. "This defendant and his MS-13 co-conspirators are on notice that they cannot engage in wanton acts of violence in our communities. We will continue to work with our county and federal law enforcement partners to ensure that members of trans-national violent street gangs who seek to harm our residents are incarcerated and held responsible for their actions."

On the morning of Jan. 6, 2024, the 15-year-old boy was lured to the Huntington Train Station by a minor, officials said. While at the train station, five of seven co-defendants, Josue Zepeda Padilla, Brayan Jimenez Avila, Yeison Chavez Campos, Maycoll Ramirez Cerrato, and Marcos Serpos, displayed a knife while surrounding the teenager, the DA said. They stole his money and property and took turns punching and kicking him, prosecutors said.

The five then forced the boy into a car driven by Maybelline Garcia Cornejo, who then drove the teenager and the five others to the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood, investigators said. While on way to Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, one of the defendants forcefully took the boy's cellphone, prosecutors said.

Once the gang and teenager arrived on the grounds of the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, the gang forced the boy to climb through a hole in the wall of an abandoned building, authorities said. While inside, each of the men then punched, kicked, and beat the victim, officials said. During the assault, Zepeda Padilla stabbed the teen in the neck, causing a cut that required stitches to close, prosecutors said. One of the men then hit the boy on the head with a hard object believed to be a rock, knocking the victim unconscious and fracturing his skull, the DA said.

Chavez Campos and the other assailants then fled the abandoned building and left the teenager out
cold on the ground inside the abandoned building, prosecutors said. Hours later, Chavez Campos and his co-defendants returned to the building with garbage bags and shovels, prepared to bury the teenager, but they could not find him, investigators said.

"Miraculously, the victim lived through the assault," the DA's office wrote.

When the teenager regained consciousness, he had found a way out of the building and walked down the road until he collapsed, only to be found by someone passing by, investigators said. The boy required surgery, including a craniotomy, to treat the brain bleed and fractured skull, officials said.

He ultimately survived his injuries, the DA said.

On July 18, Chavez Campos was convicted on charges of one count of first-degree gang assault; one count of first-degree assault; one count of second-degree kidnapping; one count of first-degree attempted assault; one count of second-degree gang assault; two counts of second-degree robbery; and two counts of second-degree assault, Tierney said. He was being represented by Pierre Bazile.

Chavez Campos’s co-defendants, Josue "Shrek" Zepeda Padilla, Brayan "Gucci" Jimenez Avila,
Maycoll "Pirata" Ramirez Cerrato, Marcos "Jero" Serpos, Maybelline Garcia Cornejo and Henry
Lemus Nieto, previously pleaded guilty to the charges contained in the indictment and are awaiting
sentencing, the DA said.

The minor who lured the teenager was indicted for one count of first-degree robbery; two counts of second-degree robbery; and one count of fourth-degree criminal facilitation, authorities said.