Ex-cop Nicholas Tartaglione receives 4 life sentences for 2016 execution-style murders – NBC New York

A former suburban New York police officer turned drug dealer was sentenced to four life terms by a judge after being found guilty of the strangulation death of a man and the execution-style killings of three others in 2016.

Nicholas Tartaglione, a retired police officer who served at Briarcliff Manor, Mount Vernon and Yonkers, will serve consecutive sentences for his role in the murders of four men, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Monday. During sentencing, the judge in the case called Tartaglione a “monster.”

The 56-year-old was convicted in July 2023, nearly four years after he was briefly a cellmate of Jeffrey Epstein, New York City's notorious sexual and financial predator. Tartaglione had been found guilty of all the murder, kidnapping and drug conspiracy charges he faced.

The bodies were found in December 2016, about eight months after the four men — Martin Luna, Miguel Luna, Urbano Santiago and Hector Gutierrez — were killed in Otisville, about 70 miles north of Manhattan.

“Nicholas Tartaglione brutally and senselessly murdered Martin Luna for money, then mercilessly executed Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna and Hector Gutierrez simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. He attempted to cover up his crimes by burying all four victims in a shallow grave on his property,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “The life sentence handed down today rightly reflects the pain and suffering each victim endured at the hands of Tartaglione. I hope this outcome brings some measure of closure to the victims' families and their community.”

After Tartaglione was found guilty, Williams said the former cop organized the killings after suspecting Martin Luna stole money from him.

Prosecutors had said Tartaglione lured Luna into meeting him at a bar in what became a “death trap” for the man, two of his nephews and a family friend he brought with him. Prosecutors said in court documents that Tartaglione drove Luna's body to his Otisville ranch, while his co-conspirators brought the other three men “alive and bound” to the same location.

“What happened next could only be described as pure terror, when Tartaglione tortured Martin, then forced one of his nephews to watch Tartaglione strangle Martin to death with a zip tie,” Williams previously said .

The prosecutor said Tartaglione and two associates then transported the other three men to a secluded wooded area, forcing them to kneel before shooting them in the back of the head and burying all four in a mass grave. Prosecutors said Tartaglione shot one of the three remaining men himself.

“Tartaglione’s heinous actions represent a broader betrayal, as he was a former police officer who was once sworn to protect the very community he devastated,” Williams said.

At trial, defense attorneys argued that Tartaglione had nothing to do with the killings and was being used by the government as a convenient scapegoat. Tartaglione's attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment after the sentencing.

In July 2019, Tartaglione shared a Manhattan jail cell with Epstein when the wealthy financier was placed on suicide watch after being found with bruising to his neck. Epstein hanged himself weeks later while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.