Yeison “Yerba” Chavez Campos Guilty In NY MS-13 Kidnapping
A 15-year-old boy was lured, kidnapped, and beaten unconscious in a horror attack inside an abandoned building at the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced on Friday, July 19.
Yeison “Yerba” Chavez Campos, 23, was convicted for kidnapping and beating a teen inside the abandoned Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood, prosecutors say.
Yeison “Yerba” Chavez Campos, 23, of Huntington Station, was convicted by a jury on multiple violent felonies for his role in the brutal gang assault, including Kidnapping in the Second Degree and Gang Assault in the First Degree, prosecutors said.
Campos is the final member of the Huntington Criminal Locates Salvatrucha or “HCLS” clique of the MS-13 street gang to be convicted in the January 6, 2024 attack, Tierney said. Six others previously pleaded guilty.
Campos and four others surrounded the teen at the Huntington Train Station, robbed him, and began beating him, according to prosecutors. The suspects then forced the victim into a vehicle and drove him to an abandoned structure on the grounds of the former state psychiatric hospital.
Once inside, Campos and his crew beat the boy again, bashed his skull with a brick, and stabbed him in the neck, leaving him bleeding and unconscious on the floor. Hours later, they returned with shovels and garbage bags to bury him — but the teen had miraculously escaped.
The boy regained consciousness, stumbled out of the building, and collapsed by a nearby road, where a Good Samaritan found him and called 911. The victim underwent emergency brain surgery, including a craniotomy to relieve bleeding.
Campos now faces up to 25 years per top count, with sentences eligible to run consecutively. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged a detainer to deport him after his prison term, officials said. He is due back in court on August 20, 2025.
His co-defendants — including individuals known as “Shrek,” “Gucci,” and “Pirata” — await sentencing.
