Former New York police officer sentenced to life imprisonment after executing four men

A former suburb of New York A police officer turned drug dealer who staged the executions of four men in 2016 was sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison on Monday, federal prosecutors said.

Nicholas Tartaglione suspected a man of stealing from him in 2016 and lured him into a trap. He and others then executed the man and three family members or friends who happened to be with him, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan said.

“Nicholas Tartaglione brutally and senselessly murdered Martin Luna for money and then ruthlessly executed Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna and Hector Gutierrez simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

Tartaglione, 56, was found guilty by a jury in April 2023 on 11 counts of murder, four counts of kidnapping resulting in death, one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to commit drug trafficking.

He had been a police officer in Briarcliff Manor, a village in Westchester County, about 20 miles north of New York City.

Tartaglione tortured Martin Luna, whom he suspected of stealing $250,000, and then strangled him with a zip tie, prosecutors said.

He then took the other three men – Luna’s nephews Urbano Santiago and Miguel Luna, and family friend Hector Gutierrez – to a wooded area and forced them to kneel, Williams said. They were all then shot in the back of the head.

These three men happened to be with Martin Luna when the kidnapping took place.

They were killed “because they witnessed Martin’s murder and were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing brief, also describing Tartaglione’s crimes as “monstrous.”

The bodies of all four men were subsequently buried on Tartaglione’s property in Otisville, upstate New York, officials said. The bodies were found by an FBI task force in December 2021.

Tartaglione was sentenced on Monday to four life sentences, to be served consecutively.

Tartaglione’s defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday evening.

In March, Tartaglione filed a motion for a retrial through his attorney, arguing that his counsel failed to challenge crucial evidence and made other errors. Tartaglione maintained his innocence.

According to the documents, the judge denied the request for a retrial.

Tartaglione is a former police officer and bodybuilder who sold steroids to other bodybuilders in the Hudson Valley, prosecutors said. Among other things, he sold them to two people who assisted in the kidnapping and murders, Joseph Biggs and Gerard Benderoth.

According to prosecutors, Biggs, Tartaglione and Benderoth each shot one of the three men they forced to kneel.

“Under Tartaglione’s orders, Urbano, Miguel and Hector were forced out of the car at gunpoint and forced to their knees. Then they were executed one by one,” prosecutors wrote in the verdict. “The horror that the last victim must have felt is beyond comprehension.”

Since the four victims remained missing, their families reported their disappearance to the police, which eventually led to the FBI task force finding their bodies.

Benderoth has since died. Biggs pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison in April.

Two other men, Jason Sullivan and Marcos Cruz, were also involved in the case and pleaded guilty. Sullivan was sentenced to 10 years in prison last week, and Cruz was sentenced in November to time already served.