BRENTWOOD, N.Y. — An MS-13 gang member has been convicted of multiple violent felonies for his role in a brutal 2024 attack on a 15-year-old boy at an abandoned building on the grounds of the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced Saturday.
Yeison “Yerba” Chavez Campos, 23, of Huntington Station, was found guilty on July 18 by a jury of gang assault, kidnapping, robbery, and related charges. The conviction marks the final prosecution in a case involving seven MS-13 members and associates linked to the Huntington Criminal Locates Salvatrucha (HCLS) clique, all of whom have now been convicted.
According to trial evidence, on January 6, 2024, Chavez Campos and his co-defendants lured the teen to the Huntington Train Station, where they robbed and assaulted him before forcing him into a vehicle. The group transported the victim to the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood, where he was beaten, struck with a brick, and stabbed in the neck. The attackers left him unconscious inside the abandoned building.
Hours later, the group returned with garbage bags and shovels intending to bury the body but were unable to find the victim. The teen had regained consciousness and made his way to a nearby road, where he collapsed. A passerby called 911, and the victim was taken to a hospital where he underwent surgery for a fractured skull and brain bleed. He survived the assault.
Chavez Campos was convicted of:
- Gang Assault in the First Degree
- Assault in the First Degree
- Kidnapping in the Second Degree
- Attempted Assault in the First Degree
- Gang Assault in the Second Degree
- Two counts of Robbery in the Second Degree
- Two counts of Assault in the Second Degree
He is scheduled for sentencing on August 20, 2025, and faces up to 25 years for each of the top charges, which may be served consecutively. Following his sentence, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has filed a detainer to deport Chavez Campos.
The case was prosecuted by Suffolk County’s Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau. The investigation was led by the Suffolk County Police Department.