The former New York City Police (“NYPD”) officer Gina Montagre was sentenced to 70 months in prison for her role in obstructing a federal grand jury investigation into the Shooting Boys gang and acting as an accessory after the fact to a murder committed by a member of the gang, according to a statement made today by Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
On December 7, 2023, MESTRE entered a guilty plea to the allegations in front of U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote in Manhattan federal court. Judge Cote then handed down the current sentence.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated that, “Gina Mestre betrayed and abused the trust placed in her by the NYPD and the people of New York. She swore to protect the public from criminal activity, but instead participated in significant crimes of her own by passing confidential information to a gang leader and helping him evade capture for the murder of a rival gang member. For violating her oath to the citizens of New York City and her fellow police officers, Mestre has been sentenced to spend more than five years in federal prison.”
MESTRE was an NYPD officer that worked in the Public Safety Unit of the 52nd Precinct. Reducing gun violence in the community was a top priority for the Public Safety Unit and the precinct in the summer of 2020.
Members of the Shooting Boys, a violent street gang with its headquarters in the Bronx’s University Heights neighborhood, were blamed for a large portion of the carnage.
MESTRE started speaking with Andrew Done, sometimes known as “Caballo,” the Shooting Boys’ leader, in or around June 2020.
Through covert social media profiles and phone numbers, MESTRE and Done eventually established a close relationship during which MESTRE gave Done and other gang members access to private, law enforcement information regarding the federal grand jury investigation into the Shooting Boys.
In or about June 2020, MESTRE began communicating with Andrew Done, a/k/a “Caballo,” the leader of the Shooting Boys. MESTRE and Done communicated through secret social media accounts and phone numbers and eventually began an intimate relationship, during which MESTRE provided Done and other gang members with confidential, non-public law enforcement information about the federal grand jury investigation into the Shooting Boys.
A rival gang member named “Victim-1” was shot and killed by Done on or around November 5, 2020, while Victim-1 was sitting in his car on Cromwell Avenue in the Bronx.
Security camera footage (the “Video”) showing Done committing the murder was found by NYPD Detectives looking into the homicide. MESTRE was one of the 52nd Precinct members assigned to identify the gunman in the footage. As a matter of fact, Done was ultimately recognized as the culprit by other police, including MESTRE.
Even though MESTRE recognized Done as the shooter and seemed to be helping the NYPD catch him, he provided a copy of the video to Done’s phone and spoke with him covertly the day of the murder and in the weeks that followed.
In particular, Done was eventually able to escape the United States because MESTRE informed him of the attempts being made by law authorities to apprehend him.
Ten Shooting Boys members were indicted on 15 counts in March 2022 for a variety of federal offenses, including murder and racketeering conspiracy. After being accused of killing Victim-1, Done was captured in the Dominican Republic a few months later.
Done acknowledged his involvement in the murder of Victim-1 and entered a guilty plea to racketeering conspiracy on November 17, 2022. Done received a sentence of 35 years in jail on February 22, 2023.
MESTRE, 33, of Mohegan Lakes, New York, was also given a two-year supervised release sentence in addition to his prison term.
The exceptional investigation work of the Special Agents of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau, Group 25, was commended by Mr. Williams.
The Office’s Violent & Organized Crime Unit is prosecuting the case. The prosecution is led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys James Ligtenberg and Dominic A. Gentile.
