Ex-cop Nicholas Tartaglione to be convicted of 4 murders

Former Briarcliff Manor police officer Nicholas Tartaglione is scheduled to be sentenced Monday for killing four men in a botched 2016 drug bust.

The victims, Martin Luna, Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna and Hector Gutierrez of Middletown, disappeared in April. Their bodies were found on an Otisville property linked to Tartaglione eight months later. The retired former police officer was imprisoned in December 2016. He faces life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors said the four men were killed at a Chester bar as part of a plot to distribute five kilograms of cocaine in 2015 and 2016.

Tartaglione reportedly believed Martin Luna was responsible for the loss of $250,000. The other victims would be associates of the accused's intended target.

Tartaglione's prison sentence included time in a cell without a working toilet, according to his lawyer. He also shared a cell with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Last week, a federal court judge denied Tartaglione's request for a new trial. Prosecutors asked the court to impose a life sentence “for each victim that Tartaglione executed in a brutal and senseless manner,” according to the Journal News of Westchester.

His sentencing Monday was scheduled in White Plains. There were several postponements while Tartaglione's defense challenged the guilty verdict.

Tartaglione maintained his innocence in a phone interview with News 12 last week.

“I didn’t do that,” he insisted. “I have the evidence to go home.”

Tartaglione was convicted in April 2023 after a day of jury deliberation. One of his accomplices, school security guard Joseph Biggs, was sentenced to 16 years in prison in February. He apologized to the victims' families and reportedly said he “had no intention of being part of a drug conspiracy.”

Former police officer Gerard Benderoth, another suspect in the case, committed suicide in 2017. Jason Sullivan, also an accomplice, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading to kidnapping and drug trafficking, according to the Yonkers Ledger. He reportedly cooperated with authorities.