An MS-13 gang associate from Fresh Meadows was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison on Tuesday, Aug. 26, for the 2018 slaying of a Corona teenager in Flushing’s Kissena Park.
Juan Amaya-Ramirez, 27, and his co-defendant Oscar Flores-Mejia, 25, from Elmhurst, who is also an associate of the transnational criminal organization, pleaded guilty to the murder of 17-year-old Andy Peralta in Brooklyn federal court last September.
Amaya-Ramirez, known on the streets as “Cadaver,” and Flores-Mejia sought to murder Peralta because they believed he was associated with the 18th Street gang, an MS-13 rival. Flores-Mejia, known as “Chamuco,” had seen an online video that depicted Peralta, whom the killers did not know. They plotted to kill the Corona teen because they mistakenly thought a crown tattoo on his chest meant that he was a member of the rival 18th Street gang. This was enough to mark him for death.
Flores-Mejia recruited a 16-year-old boy to help kill Peralta, and Amaya-Ramirez’s then-girlfriend, Leyla Carranza, was recruited to befriend Peralta and lure him to his death in the park on April 23, 2018.
“The senselessness of this murder is matched only by its brutality,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella said.
According to court documents, on the day of the murder, Flores-Mejia bought black winter gloves to be used in the attack and carried a knife. Amaya-Ramirez, Flores-Mejia, and their teen accomplice were waiting inside the park. Carranza, a 24-year-old from Richmond, Virginia, communicated with Peralta on social media and eventually convinced him to meet her at a predetermined location where the killers were waiting for him. Flores-Mejia gave a signal, and the savage attack began. They beat Peralta until they were exhausted. Amaya-Ramirez then began strangling Peralta while Flores-Mejia was stomping on his head. Peralta begged for his life and called out for his mother and father. Flores-Mejia rammed soil into his mouth to silence him while Alaya-Ramirez choked him to death. Flores-Mejia then stabbed Peralta in the back and slashed his tattoo of his girlfriend’s name.
After the murder, the killers took photographs of themselves posing over Peralta’s lifeless body while flashing MS-13 hand signs. They then stole Peralta’s money and dragged him to a body of water where they dumped him facedown in the mud.
“The defendants lured Andy Peralta to a secluded part of Kissena Park where they beat him mercilessly before Amaya-Ramirez choked him to death and Flores-Mejia hacked him with a knife, ” Nocella said. “The murder of this young victim is a chilling reminder of MS-13’s callous disregard for human life.”
U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall sentenced Amaya-Ramirez to 45 years’ imprisonment, while Flores-Mejia awaits sentencing in December.
“Juan Amaya-Ramirez, an MS-13 associate, brutally attacked and murdered Andy Peralta out of senseless retaliation,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher Raia said. “The defendant unjustly sentenced Peralta to a horrific death due to a false perception of his status as a rival.”
Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Ricky Patel lamented the sheer brutality of the gruesome slaying.
“For too long, senseless gang violence has plagued our neighborhoods and devastated families,” Patel said. “Andy Peralta was viciously beaten, stabbed and strangled to death by savages.”
Since 2010, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York has obtained indictments charging MS-13 members with carrying out more than 45 murders in the district and has convicted dozens of MS-13 leaders and members in connection with those murders.
