Two gang members have been sentenced to life in federal prison for fatally shooting a Freeport man who the killers’ mistakenly believed was the member of a rival gang. 
Amadeo Rodriguez and Christopher Moore, who are members of the Ñetas street gang, were sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Sandra J. Feuerstein at the federal courthouse in Central Islip.
Rodriguez and Moore, both 29, had been convicted in June 2008 of racketeering, murder, conspiracy, assault and the illegal use of firearms in connection with the 2001 New Year’s Day murder of Giovanni Aguilar.
Rodriguez and Moore were also sentenced to 70 years and 45 years imprisonment, respectively,
for convictions on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and the discharge of firearms in connection with other violent acts.
The duo murdered 20-year-old Aguilar at a Jay Street home on Jan. 1, 2001, federal prosecutors said. Aguilar, a landscaper, was killed because the shooters mistakenly believed that he was a member of the MS-13 street gang, which the Ñetas were warring with.
Rodriguez shot Aguilar in the face and chest while Moore fired six shots into a home filled with New Year’s Eve celebrants—including MS-13 gang members—narrowly missing a 10-year-old child, prosecutors said. The shooting was in retaliation for the murder of Damien Corrente, who was mistakenly believed to be a Ñetas member by the MS-13 members who killed him on Jan. 14, 1999.
Prosecutors also said Rodriguez and other Ñetas gang members beat and stabbed two men with broken sticks and bottles in a Freeport industrial park in July 2000 in retribution for an earlier altercation between the Ñetas and the victims.
In addition, prosecutors said Rodriguez opened fire at a car filled with MS-13 gang members on Sunrise Highway in Bellmore, narrowly missing them and several innocent bystanders in April 2003.
