Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney announced Friday that a jury has found Alcides Lopez-Cambara guilty in the 2020 murder-robbery of Marco Grisales, whose last known address was in Sag Harbor.
The defendant, 42, faces 25 years to life in prison for killing a man whom prosecutors called his “romantic rival.” He was found guilty of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery, and will be sentenced on Jan. 13.
Mr. Lopez-Cambara was with his girlfriend, Tyara Lemus, then 18, on Nov. 11, 2020, when, prosecutors said, Ms. Lemus got a phone call from Mr. Grisales. It was his birthday, he told her, and “asked if he could see her that night,” according to the D.A.’s announcement. Mr. Lopez-Cambara overheard the conversation, became jealous, and “devised a plan to rob the victim with the help of Lemus.”
The plan was to lure Mr. Grisales to a McDonald’s in Riverhead under the pretext of celebrating his birthday. Ms. Lemus met with Mr. Grisales “and drove to a nearby buffalo farm to party.” When they arrived, Mr. Lopez-Cambara and two accomplices dragged Mr. Grisales out of his pickup truck and beat him to death with the barrel of a shotgun, “which was adorned with a distinctive bejeweled skull.”
They stole jewelry and other items from the truck before putting the body in the back of the truck and parking it nearby. A passer-by saw the vehicle and reported it to police.
Ms. Lemus subsequently called police, using an alias, and gave them information about the two accomplices, one of whom has not been identified. The other, Dennis Jonathon Hernandez Abanao, previously pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder and is awaiting sentencing. Ms. Lemus pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and is also awaiting sentencing.
At the time of the murder, Sag Harbor police said Mr. Grisales had once been a resident of the village, but hadn’t lived there for some time. His truck was registered to an address in the village that was either vacant or in foreclosure, they said.