A Former Farmhand Of Nicholas Tartaglione Takes The Stand Against Him

A cooperating witness testified that Nicholas Tartaglione orchestrated the April 2016 abduction and killing of Martin Luna after accusing him of stealing money connected to their cocaine operation. According to the testimony, Luna was lured to the Likquid Lounge in Chester, New York, but arrived with his nephews, Miguel Luna and Urbano Santiago, and their friend Hector Gutierrez. Prosecutors said Tartaglione and his associates restrained the four men, and Tartaglione took Martin Luna into a bathroom, where he beat and interrogated him about the missing money before strangling him with a zip tie. The witness described the other three men as unintended victims who were seized simply because they had accompanied Luna to the bar.The testimony continued that Luna’s body and the three surviving captives were transported to Tartaglione’s property in Otisville. There, Miguel Luna, Urbano Santiago and Hector Gutierrez were shot and killed, and all four bodies were buried together on the property. The cooperator said he later helped dispose of the victims and eventually led investigators to the burial site after agreeing to assist the government. Prosecutors used his account alongside cellphone records, surveillance footage and forensic evidence to argue that Tartaglione directed the killings, while the defense attacked the witness’s credibility and maintained that cooperating defendants had incentives to blame Tartaglione in exchange for reduced punishmentto contact me:[email protected]