NEW YORK, NY – Nicholas Tartaglione, a former police officer turned steroids-selling bodybuilder from Briarcliff Manor, New York, was sentenced on Monday to four consecutive life terms in federal prison. Tartaglione, 56, was convicted for the execution-style murders of four Mexican men in a case that involved drug conspiracy, kidnapping, and murder charges.
The U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas mandated the life sentences, highlighting the “monstrous offenses” committed by Tartaglione, as emphasized by prosecutors in their correspondence to the court. Despite his assertions of innocence and his statement to News 12 that he is “a cop in prison for crimes I didn’t do,” the severity of the crimes led to this inevitable conclusion of a life sentence.
The incident that led to Tartaglione’s conviction occurred in April 2016, when he lured 41-year-old Martin Luna to a meeting at a bar under the guise of discussing a financial matter. Luna was strangled to death in front of his nephews, Miguel Luna, 25, and Urbano Santiago, 35, as well as his friend Hector Gutierrez, 43. The three were subsequently taken to Tartaglione’s property in Otisville, where they were executed by gunshot and buried in a mass grave.
The case has drawn significant attention not only due to the gruesome nature of the crimes but also because of Tartaglione’s previous notoriety as a cellmate of the infamous sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
