What to Know
- Cops say Tommy Alvarado-Ventura attacked three people in 2017, including a child, over the course of a brutal five-hour crime spree
- He pleaded guilty last month to charges including attempted murder and predatory sexual assault against a child
- A Nassau County police official described the case as "probably the most heinous criminal act” he’d seen in 28 years on the job
An MS-13 member who stabbed two women and tried to rape a 2-year-old girl during a five-hour criminal frenzy two years ago was sentenced Wednesday to 26 years to life in prison.
Tommy Alvarado-Ventura, 33, pleaded guilty last month to a litany of charges in connection with the March 22, 2017 spree. He was arrested shortly thereafter. A Nassau County police official at the time described the case as "probably the most heinous criminal act” he’d seen in 28 years on the job.
"This defendant sexually assaulted a helpless toddler and brutally stabbed and attempted to murder two women, including the child’s mother, in a horrific and unconscionable spree of violence,” Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a statement. "The depravity of this defendant knows few parallels, and he should spend the rest of his life in prison for these despicable crimes."
Witnesses called police in the overnight hours that spring day in 2017 after they saw Alvarado-Ventura stab and slash a woman outside a bar in Hempstead, prosecutors said.
At some point during the attack, Alvarado-Ventura put his knife in the woman’s mouth and cut her, leaving her with a collapsed lung, a permanent scar and nerve-damaged fingers, officials said.
After Alvarado-Ventura fled the scene outside the bar, he made his way to his girlfriend’s apartment in Hempstead, where he beat, strangled and sexually attacked his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter, prosecutors said.
When his girlfriend got to the apartment, he tried to kill her too, beating her and stabbing her arms, hands and neck, according to prosecutors. He was arrested at the scene.
Alvarado-Ventura, an admitted member of the notoriously violent MS-13 gang, according to police, has been deported four times. He was first deported back to El Salvador in September 2006 and most recently in December 2011.
Police did not provide information on the reasons for the four deportations, but said at least one was related to prior criminal convictions, which include assault, DWI, drug possession, disorderly conduct and false impersonation.
