Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that Olban Gonzales has been convicted by a jury of murdering 17-year-old Edwin Mejia Alvarado as he sat in a car with three friends behind La Boom nightclub in Westbury. Gonzales mistook Alvarado for a member of a rival gang, murdering him and seriously wounding the three other men in the car. Alvarado and his friends are not gang members.
Gonzales, 21, of Roosevelt, was convicted of murder, attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon. He faces up to life in prison at his August 2 sentencing.
Rice said that at about 11 p.m. on February 17, 2008, Alvarado and three friends were leaving La Boom nightclub, located inside Don Juan Mexican Restaurant on Old Country Road in Westbury. Earlier in the evening a disturbance involving club patrons and two people suspected of being members of the MS-13 street gang resulted in the ejection of the suspected gang members from the club. During the altercation, word spread of the incident to individuals outside of the club. One of those individuals was the defendant, Gonzales.
Gonzales, a member of the 18th Street gang, and another man, Dwayne Dailey, 24, of Hempstead, arrived at the club in response to telephone calls from friends describing the earlier altercation. Mistaking Alvarado and his friends for MS-13 members, the two assailants followed the teens to their vehicle. Once they were inside the car, Gonzales and Dailey opened fire on the parked Honda sedan. Alvarado was killed, while the three others suffered serious injuries. They have since recovered, but all are permanently disabled.
Dailey, a member of the Bloods gang, was convicted of identical charges in June 2009 and is serving 100 years to life in prison.
“This was more than a murder,” Rice said. “This was a cold-blooded execution that has destroyed lives and deeply impacted everyone connected to it. My message to anyone involved in a gang is this: If you choose that way of life and its violent code, then you will either end up dead or in a prison cell.”