MS-13 member pleads guilty to 2020 Hempstead murder

Denis Gutierrez-Marcos, a reputed member of the MS-13 street gang, pleaded guilty to murder and related charges for two shootings in Hempstead in 2020.

Gutierrez-Marcos, 20, who is also known as Inqueto, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder, one count of second-degree attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon. He is in custody and could be sentenced to 20 years to life in prison on March 23. The Nassau County District Attorney’s office is recommending 25 years to life.

“Denis Gutierrez-Marcos, an alleged MS-13 gang member, showed complete disregard for human life when shot four men in two separate incidents in September and October 202,” District Attorney Anne Donnelly stated in a news release. “The defendant took one man’s life and injured three others because the victims allegedly disrespected MS-13. We are working around the clock with our law enforcement partners to neutralize this gang, which has terrorized our communities through fear and intimidation.”

Just before 4 a.m. on Sept. 6, 2020, Gutierrez-Marcos was in taxicab minivan traveling to High Street in Hempstead with two other passengers and the driver. A passenger in the front seat got into an argument with another passenger in the back seat. When that passenger got out of the cab he continued yelling at the other passenger through the open window, according to the DA’s office.

Gutierrez-Marcos, seated behind the driver, leaned forward and shot the passenger through the open window. The bullet struck the person in the left shoulder and he fell backwards. Gutierrez-Marcos then told the tax driver to drive away. A friend of the man who shot, Edwin Guerrero Hernandez, was outside on High Street and saw what had happened. Hernandez chased the cab and tried to open the passenger. Gutierrez-Marcos fired his gun again and hit Hernandez, who was taken to Nassau University Medical Center, where he died.

Gutierrez-Marcos was again a passenger in a vehicle going to a store at roughly 10 p.m. on Oct. 3. As he returned home, Gutierrez-Marcos saw a group of people standing outside on Jackson Street. He fired at least one shot into the group that struck two people. One was hit in the arm, and the other in the stomach and suffered life-threatening injuries. Both survived the shooing.  

Gutierrez-Marcos left the scene and apparently Long Island. The county’s Gang Squad then arrested him in June 2021 after he returned to Long Island.