Trinitarios gang member, 24, is jailed for more than seven years for the brutal 2018 beating of a 14-year-old boy on a NYC highway
A member of the violent Trinitarios gang was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison for the 2018 beating of a 14-year-old boy in New York City.
Ramón Paulino, then 21, was among a dozen Trinitarios gang members who were caught on a cellphone video attacking Esaid Hoke on the side of a highway in the Bronx on June 18, 2018.
On Wednesday, the now 24-year-old broke down in front of U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon at his sentencing.
According to the Daily News, Paulino complained that 17 months away from his two-year-old daughter and family had changed him for good.
'I swear to you I will never commit another crime in my life,' Paulino said.
Ramón Paulino, then 21, was among a dozen Trinitarios gang members who were caught on a cellphone video attacking Esaid Hoke on the side of a highway in the Bronx on June 18, 2018
Hoke was trapped in the middle of the Bronx River Parkway after he had been chased from a neighborhood pool in 2018 when he was attacked.
McMahon showed no leniency, telling him 'I have no doubt the people who love the way you love your daughter have gone through hell because of what you and your buddies did.'
Hoke was trapped in the middle of the Bronx River Parkway after he had been chased from a neighborhood pool in 2018 when he was attacked.
Gang members took turns hitting and stabbing him 16 times.
Paulino was seen on the viral video assaulting Hoke with a tree log, a federal court document from 2018 indicated.
Gang members took turns hitting and stabbing him 16 times
Paulino was seen on the viral video assaulting Hoke with a tree log, a federal court document from 2018 indicated
The complaint initially revealed that Hoke had identified himself on Facebook as member of the Grizzlies, a faction within the notorious Bloods gang. But McMahon said Hoke was not affiliated to any gangs and did not do anything to provoke the attack.
Hoke survived the attack despite suffering two heart attacks and losing a lung. A nurse who was stuck in traffic and a paramedics aboard a ambulance that was on the highway sprung into action and helped save his life.
The attack on Hoke took place before Trinitarios gang members brutally stabbed an innocent 15-year-old Lesandro 'Junior' Guzmán-Feliz to death with a machete outside of a Bronx bodega on June 20.