A Nassau jury has convicted Mineola resident Marvin Yanez, 43, in the 2016 murder of Luis Rustrian Estrada, 31, of Hempstead, at Brierley Park.
The jury deliberated for five hours before finding Yanez guilty of second-degree murder and second-degree assault felonies, and the misdemeanor fourth degree possession of a weapon.
“This defendant brutally beat and killed his 31-year-old victim while he was asleep in a Hempstead park,” District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a statement. “My heart goes out to the family of Luis Estrada, and I hope that today’s conviction for this horrific crime brings them some comfort.”
Yanez and Estrada started fist-fighting near the Laundry Palace on Clinton Avenue, in a nearby neighborhood, around 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 18, 2016. Yanez took a hammer from his white Ford pickup and struck Estrada’s arm.
“This war isn’t over, you started this war and I’m going to finish it,” Yanez said during the fight, according to a press release from the District Attorney’s office.
Prosecutors said that Yanez returned to the park around 11 p.m. and beat Estrada’s head with an unknown blunt object while he slept bleeding on the ground.
A friend of Estrada’s found him around 11:45 p.m. Hempstead Police responded at 11:52 p.m. Estrada was taken to NYU Winthrop hospital by ambulance where he was pronounced dead at 12:56 a.m. on Oct. 19.
The battery left Estrada with a brain bleed and a broken skull, Newsday reported.
But Yanez’s lawyer, Jacob Weinstein, said Yanez didn’t return to the park after the earlier argument and maintains his innocence.
Police arrested Yanez the next day and found the hammer and a machete in his truck, Newsday reported. DNA testing of the weapons bore no incriminating results.
Newsday reported that surveillance footage recovered by police shows the first fight and Yanez at the park later that night.
Yanez, a landscaper, is now facing a potential sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
“This defendant brutally beat and killed his 31-year-old victim while he was asleep in a Hempstead park,” District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a statement. “My heart goes out to the family of Luis Estrada, and I hope that today’s conviction for this horrific crime brings them some comfort.”
