Earlier today, the leader of a Long Island chapter of the Ñetas street gang, Jason Cabral, also known as “J-Live,” was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 37 years to be followed by five years of supervised release as a result of his guilty plea to the 2004 murders of Anthony Marcano and Fabian Mestres. The sentence was imposed in federal court in Central Islip, New York, by United States Senior District Judge Joanna Seybert.

The sentence was announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, George Venizelos, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), and William J. Bratton, Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD).

“Ten years ago Jason Cabral ordered the robbery and murder of two 17-year-old young men. His minions carried out that order, binding the victims, wiping their bodies of forensic evidence, stuffing them into the trunk of car and driving them to their executions,” stated United States Attorney Lynch. “For eight years Cabral thought he had outsmarted law enforcement and gotten away with murder. From one slender lead, and with the tenacity of the FBI and NYPD, these horrific murders were solved and the killers brought to justice. We hope today’s proceedings bring some measure of relief to the victims’ families.” Ms. Lynch expressed her grateful appreciation to the Tampa Division of the FBI and United States Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Florida, for their cooperation and assistance in the investigation.

As detailed during the plea proceeding and other court filings, Cabral targeted one of the victims, Anthony Marcano, because of his affiliation with a rival gang, the Latin Kings. On August 10, 2004, Cabral ordered his fellow gang members to rob and kill 17-year-old Marcano. As part of the plan, the defendant and his co-conspirators lured Marcano to a house in Brentwood. Marcano arrived at that house with 17-year-old Fabian Mestres, a fellow “Pee Wee” member of the Latin Kings street gang. Once inside the house, the victims were restrained with duct tape and their drugs, money and jewelry were stolen. The two victims were stuffed into the trunk of a car and driven to a warehouse in Queens where one of the defendant’s co-conspirators shot them with a shotgun. Mestres was shot once in the head, and Marcano was shot once in the head and once in the back of the neck. Marcano’s and Mestres’s dead bodies were found behind a warehouse in Queens the following day.

The government’s case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Nicole Boeckmann and Christopher C. Caffarone.

The Defendant:

JASON CABRAL
Age: 37
Riverview, Florida