Man is held hostage in sex-fueled LI plot apparently tied to MS-13: prosecutors
Two men accused of robbing and holding a guy hostage in his pickup truck on Long Island over the weekend were part of a sex-fueled plot apparently tied to the bloodthirsty MS-13 gang, prosecutors say.
Tylor Salmeron, 19, and Yonathan Hernandez, 23, both alleged MS-13 members, held the 48-year-old man against his will and robbed and threatened to kill him Saturday in Jericho in Nassau County, according to authorities.
A 16-year-old girl also was allegedly involved in the scheme, though her role wasn’t immediately clear.
The suspects had first lured the victim to a room at the Edgewood Motel “under the guise of engaging in sexual acts,” according to a criminal complaint and police.
Hernandez then tried to stab the victim with a knife, and Salmeron struck him in the left shoulder with a machete, demanding that he fork over some dough, authorities said.
The victim handed over $300, but that did not satisfy his attackers — who continued to strike him and grabbed his phone, wallet and car keys, according to the charging document.
They led him out of the room at knifepoint to the parking lot and forced him into the back seat of his Ford F150 truck, the complaint says.
Hernandez then sat in the driver’s seat and drove both suspects as well as the victim to a Chase Bank ATM, authorities said.
The suspects allegedly forced the victim to provide the PIN number for his ATM card.
Hernandez used the card to withdraw $1,000 from the victim͛’s account, according to the complaint.
The suspects continued driving with their victim after informing him “that they intended to kill him because he had no more money and he had seen their faces,” the court document alleges.
“They pretty much held [the victim] prisoner,” a police source previously told The Post. “They were trying to get money out of him. They had weapons, so who knows what they were thinking.”
The scheme unraveled at Cambridge Avenue and Warren Street in Westbury, authorities said.
Officers pulled over the Ford truck after it rolled through a stop sign, and officers noticed that one of the passengers — the victim — looked distressed, officials said.
“His face was like ‘Help me. Help me.’ He looked very distraught,” the police source said.
After everyone was ordered out of the vehicle, Salmeron began to run and threw a large machete hidden in his shorts onto the ground, authorities said.
Hernandez also was found with a “box cutter type knife” hidden in his pants, according to the court papers.
Police were able to catch both men and the 16-year-old girl.
The suspects were charged with raps including kidnapping in the second degree and robbery in the first degree, as well as criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree and conspiracy in the fourth degree.
The trio was arraigned Sunday, prosecutors said.
Salmeron’s bail was set at $500,000 bond, $250,000 cash and $1 million partially secured bond.
Both Hernandez and the teen girl were ordered held on $250,000 bond, $100,000 cash, and $500,000 partially secured bond.
