2 alleged MS-13 gang members from Hempstead clique charged in June killing of 18-year-old

Two alleged MS-13 gang members from Hempstead were arraigned Thursday on a federal indictment accusing them of killing an 18-year-old they suspected was affiliated with a rival gang, authorities said.

Isaac Eliseo Lopez Alvarez, 20, and Denis Alexander Gonzalez Sorto, 22, pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and other charges related to the June 28 killing of Michael David Grajeda Suazo, of Hempstead.

"As alleged, the defendants carried out a planned and savage killing, stabbing and beating a teen on the street in Hempstead in furtherance of MS-13, a vicious transnational gang," U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. said in a statement.

Glenn Obedin, the defense attorney who represented Lopez Alvarez and Gonzalez Sorto on Thursday, declined to speak with Newsday following the arraignment. Prosecutors also declined to comment.

Earlier this year, Gonzalez Sorto, Lopez-Alvarez and other MS-13 gang members based in Hempstead "discussed plans to identify, locate, and kill suspected members of the 18th Street gang," including Grajeda Suazo, according to a news release from Nocella’s office.

On the night of June 28, Gonzalez Sorto, Lopez-Alvarez and a third alleged gang member spotted Grajeda Suazo on Fulton Avenue, rode past him on bikes and waited for him on a side street, the release said. The gang members pursued him before Gonzalez Sorto allegedly stabbed him multiple times, including at least once in the chest. The other gang members "kicked and stomped" the victim "as he lay on the ground mortally wounded," the release alleged.

Nassau County police officers responded to reports of the attack, according to a department release at the time. Grajeda Suazo was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.

Nassau homicide detectives arrested Gonzalez Sorto and Lopez-Alvarez, along with a 17-year-old, the following month, initially charging them with second-degree murder in state court. Gonzalez Sorto and Lopez-Alvarez pleaded not guilty in Nassau District Court on Aug. 1, according to court records, and have since been held in state custody without bail. They are scheduled to appear in that court on Nov. 10, online records show.

Neither the Eastern District of New York nor the Nassau County District Attorney's Office released information on the 17-year-old arrested.

On Thursday, Gonzalez Sorto and Lopez-Alvarez, wearing baseball and soccer jerseys, respectively, pleaded not guilty to a trio of federal charges in the unsealed indictment — racketeering conspiracy, being aliens in possession of a firearm and conspiring to distribute cocaine and marijuana — before Magistrate Judge Lee G. Dunst in Central Islip.

The drug charges stem from "street-level sales of cocaine and marijuana on Long Island, the proceeds of which were used to help finance the MS-13’s criminal operations, including purchasing firearms, ammunition and other weapons, and sending money to MS-13 leadership in Central America," according to Nocella’s release. Upon executing a search warrant, law enforcement recovered a semiautomatic "ghost gun" in a bedroom the two men shared.

Dunst ordered both men remanded without bail Thursday and said they are considered flight risks due to the violent nature of their alleged crimes, their immigration status and the length of the sentences they could face if convicted. He added that "their release poses a serious danger to the community."

 Both men are scheduled to return to federal court on Dec. 3.