Gang Members Sentenced In 2007 Little Neck Slaying

Update, 2:41 p.m.: Santos Rodriguez, cousin of brothers Balmore and Jose Rodriguez, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to a spokesperson at the Queens DA office.

The sentencing of Rosana Juarez Avalos, convicted of luring victim Domingo Hernandez to his death on Christmas night 2007, has been postponed to Jan. 18.

Check back with Little Neck Patch for more updates.

Law enforcement authorities are closing the books on a grisly Christmas night slaying in a Little Neck playground three years ago.

A passerby spotted the lifeless body of Domingo Hernandez in the early hours of Dec. 26, 2007 in a handball court in Admiral Park, across the street from in Little Neck.

Hernandez was lying face up in a pool of blood from stab wounds in the torso, with his face bludgeoned and slashed.

On Jan. 5, Queens Supreme Court Justice Gregory Lasak sentenced brothers Balmore and Jose Oswaldo Rodriguez for manslaughter as part of a plea deal with the Queens District Attorney's office.

Balmore Rodriguez received 20 years in prison, while Jose Rodriguez got 17 years, according to a Queens DA spokesperson.

Their cousin, Santos Rodriguez, 22, was sentenced earlier this week in connection with the same crime.

18-year-old Rosana Juarez Avalos, who lured Hernandez to his death, will be sentenced later today. Avalos was 16 at the time, but was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty to manslaughter last January.

The four have been in custody since their arrest in January 2008. 

According to a police source, the three killers and victim were from the same village in El Salvador. “He was just a working man. They are MS-13 gang members,” the source alleged during the investigation.

Police believed that the murder was related to a 2006 rape and robbery that took place behind the now-demolished Patrick’s Pub, which had been located at 252-12 Northern Blvd. in Little Neck.

Balmore Rodriguez was arrested on June 15, 2006, with the Queens DA charging that he approached “a young mother” and “put a knife to the woman’s throat and forced her into the building, where he raped and sodomized her.” He reportedly also robbed her of $200 before he fled.

Balmore Rodriguez was charged with rape, sodomy and robbery, all in the first degree and held on $250,000 bail, according to the DA.

But according to a police source close to that investigation, “the victim was an illegal immigrant and went back to her country, so the case fell apart.”

On Jan. 11, 2007, Balmore Rodriguez pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and was sentenced to time served. He was handed over to immigration authorities and deported to El Salvador in April. “He lost no time getting right back here,” the source said.

It was unclear whether Balmore Rodriguez would be deported once his time was served.

Hernandez shared an apartment with several other men, which is located around the corner from where the 2006 rape took place. Police believed that he may have known the alleged rape victim and that the two crimes were “definitely” connected.

This was the first murder actually committed in Little Neck since April 1991, when Mohammed Lokman Uddin, a Bangladeshi domestic servant, strangled 31-year-old Noor Ahmed in her home.

That slaying was the first recorded murder in Little Neck since shopkeeper James Graham was beaten to death with a sharp, pointed instrument during a late night robbery on Feb. 7, 1873.