Two Brooklyn gang members will be spending years behind bars for kidnapping and murdering a Williamsburg man and dumping his body in Forest Park in 2012, Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson announced on Wednesday.
The defendants — identified by the DA’s office as Tramel Cuencas, 24, and Irving Gavin, 28, both of 702 Warwick St. in East New York, Brooklyn, and members of the Elm Street Piru gang — were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on Wednesday by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun. Cuencas was convicted on April 14, 2016, of two counts of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree robbery after a jury trial. Gavin was convicted on April 18, 2016, of first-degree kidnapping and first-degree burglary by a separate jury.
“These two defendants committed a brazen and heinous crime,” Thompson said. “They kidnapped a young man in broad daylight, in front of his family, and later slit his throat and took money, drugs and a car in payment for these heinous acts. They now deserve to spend many years in prison for their crimes.”
According to trial testimony, Cuencas and Gavin forced their way into Thomas Dudley’s apartment and held him and three of his family members — including Dudley’s 8-year-old sister — at gunpoint on November 14, 2012. They then took approximately $10,000 from a safe inside the home.
The defendants then tied Dudley’s hand and forced him into the back of a U-Haul truck. Dudley’s body was found the next day inside Forest Park with both wrists slashed and his throat cut “from ear to ear,” Thompson said.
Cuencas and Gavin were arrested on November 19, 2012, after making incriminating statements admitting to the kidnapping and indicated that it was ordered by another gang member as retaliation for an alleged drug dispute.
In exchange for kidnapping Dudley, the defendants expected to be paid in cash, drugs and a Jaguar.
