Former Briarcliff Manor police officer Nicholas Tartaglione is scheduled to be sentenced Monday for the killing of four men over a botched 2016 drug deal.
The victims, Martin Luna, Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna, and Hector Gutierrez from Middletown, disappeared in April. Their bodies were found on an Otisville property linked to Tartaglione eight months later. The retired ex-cop was jailed in December 2016. He faces the possibility of life in prison without parole.
Prosecutors said the four men were killed in a Chester bar in connection to a conspiracy to distribute five kilograms of cocaine in 2015 and 2016.
Tartaglione allegedly believed Martin Luna was responsible for costing him $250,000. The other victims were said to be associates of the defendant’s intended target.
Tartaglione jail time included a stint in a cell with no working toilet, according to his attorney. He also shared a cell with late sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A federal court judge denied Tartaglione’s request for a new trial last week. Prosecutors asked the court to impose a life sentences “for each victim that Tartaglione brutally and senselessly executed,” according to The Journal News in Westchester.
His Monday sentencing was scheduled in White Plains. There have been several postponements while Tartaglione’s defense team challenged the guilty verdict.
Tartaglione maintained his innocence in a phone interview with News 12 last week.
“I didn’t do this,” he insisted. “I have the evidence to get me home.”
Tartaglione was convicted in April 2023 after one day of jury deliberation. One of his accomplices, school security guard Joseph Biggs, was sentenced to 16-years prison time in February. He apologized to the victims’ families and reportedly said he “had no intention of being part of a drug conspiracy.”
Ex-cop Gerard Benderoth, another suspect in the case, took his own life in 2017. Jason Sullivan, also an accomplice, was sentenced to 10 years behind bars after pleading to kidnapping and drug charges, according to the Yonkers Ledger. He reportedly cooperated with authorities.
