MINEOLA, N.Y. — A Hempstead man was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a string of armed robberies and the cold-blooded killing of a Good Samaritan who tried to stop one of the attacks.
Deshawn Martin, 28, was convicted on June 4 following a jury trial of 19 charges, including first-degree murder, in connection with six robberies and an attempted robbery committed between October 2021 and February 2022. He was sentenced in Nassau County Court to life without parole for the murder, plus 152 consecutive years on the other charges.
On January 30, 2022, Martin entered Antojitos Express in Hempstead with a loaded gun, pistol-whipped a patron, and then fatally shot 49-year-old Santos Valeriano Argueta, who tried to intervene.
Once outside the restaurant, Martin shot Argueta three times, including once point-blank to the chest, then rifled through the dying man’s pockets and stole his cell phone before fleeing.
“Deshawn Martin’s life of crime speaks for itself,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly said in a statement. “This sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole puts him exactly where he belongs.”
Days later, Martin robbed two more businesses at gunpoint — a 7-Eleven in Uniondale and a Dunkin Donuts in Westbury. He was also convicted of three earlier robberies in October 2021 targeting stores in Merrick, Hicksville, and Plainview, each time pretending to be armed with a concealed weapon.
Martin was arrested on February 9, 2022, in Freeport by Nassau County police.
