(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that Yeison “Yerba” Chavez Campos, 23, of Huntington Station, was convicted of Gang Assault in the First Degree, Kidnapping in the Second Degree and other related charges after a jury trial, for his role in a January 6, 2024 violent attack on a 15-year-old at the Pilgrim State Mental Facility in Brentwood that left the child unconscious. Chavez Campos is the final one of the seven members and associates of the Huntington Criminal Locates Salvatrucha or “HCLS” clique of the MS-13 street gang convicted of the attack.
“MS-13 has no place in Suffolk County,” said District Attorney Tierney. “The actions of this defendant and his MS-13 co-defendants on a 15-year-old boy will not be tolerated. I commend my office and our law enforcement partners for bringing this defendant and all of his associates to justice.”
The evidence at trial established that on the morning of January 6, 2024, the 15-year-old victim was lured to the Huntington Train Station by a group of MS-13 members and associates.
While at the train station, Chavez Campos and four other MS-13 members/associates surrounded the victim and took the victim’s money. Chavez Campos and the others then punched the victim repeatedly, knocked the victim to the ground, and kicked the victim multiple times.
After the assault, Chavez Campos and his MS-13 associates forced the victim into a vehicle and drove the victim to the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood. Once there, the assailants brought him into an abandoned building. Inside the building, Chavez Campos and the other MS-13 members/associates, beat the victim repeatedly, struck him with a brick in the back of the head, and stabbed him in the neck.
Chavez Campos and the other assailants then fled the abandoned building and left the victim unconscious on the ground inside the abandoned building. Hours later, Chavez Campos and his co-defendants returned to the building with garbage bags and shovels, prepared to bury the victim but could not find him.
Miraculously, the victim lived through the assault. He regained consciousness, found a way out of the building and walked to a nearby road where he collapsed. A short time later he was found by a Good Samaritan who called 911. The victim was brought to a local hospital, and required surgery, including a craniotomy, to treat a brain bleed and fractured skull. He ultimately survived his injuries.
On July 18, 2025, Chavez Campos was convicted after a jury trial before Supreme Court Justice Anthony S. Senft, Jr. on the following charges:
- One count of Gang Assault in the First Degree, a Class B violent felony;
- One count of Assault in the First Degree, a Class B violent felony;
- One count of Kidnapping in the Second Degree, a Class B violent felony;
- One count of Attempted Assault in the First Degree, a Class C violent felony;
- One count of Gang Assault in the Second Degree, a Class C violent felony;
- Two counts of Robbery in the Second Degree, Class C violent felonies; and
- Two counts of Assault in the Second Degree, Class D violent felonies.
Chavez Campos’s co-defendants Josue “Shrek” Zepeda Padilla, Brayan “Gucci” Jimenez Avila, Maycoll “Pirata” Ramirez Cerrato, Marcos “Jero” Serpos, Maybelline Garcia Cornejo and Henry Lemus Nieto previously pleaded guilty to the charges contained in the indictment and are awaiting sentencing.
Chavez Campos is due back in court on August 20, 2025, and faces 25 years on each of the top counts, which are eligible to be run consecutively to each other. He is being represented by Pierre Bazile, Esq.
The United States Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has lodged a detainer to take custody and deport Chaves Campos after he serves his sentence.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Donald Barclay, Kristen E.L. Yeamans, and Elizabeth Moran from the Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau. The investigation was led by Detective Sean Walsh of Suffolk County Police Department Third Precinct Detective Squad, and the Suffolk County Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Section with assistance from the Suffolk County Police Department’s Second Precinct Anticrime Team.
