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Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that Alejandro Vargas-Diaz, 41, of Port Jefferson, was sentenced to 23 years to life in prison after pleading guilty in July to Murder in the Second Degree and other related charges, for the 2018 fatal shooting of 27-year-old Albert Luis Rodriguez-Lopez.
“This sentence should be a warning to all those who think they could escape responsibility for murder simply by fleeing the jurisdiction,” said District Attorney Tierney. “Law enforcement in Suffolk County does not forget. Your crimes will catch up to you and you will be held responsible for your actions. This defendant’s prison sentence attests to that.”
According to court documents and the defendant’s statements during his guilty plea allocution, on July 22, 2018, Vargas-Diaz and the victim got into an argument inside a pool hall in Port Jefferson. During the argument, the victim punched Vargas-Diaz in the face, knocking him to the ground. A short time later, Vargas-Diaz ambushed the victim inside the pool hall, and shot the victim in the back, neck, and shoulder. The victim, a father of three and resident of Selden, died at the scene. Vargas-Diaz immediately fled and absconded from New York state.
One month after the murder, members of Suffolk County Police Department found the murder weapon, a 9 mm pistol, hidden in a tree at the Setauket Port Jefferson Greenway Trail.
On June 18, 2021, nearly three years after the fatal shooting, Vargas-Diaz was arrested by members of the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office in Florida after a tip to crime stoppers. Vargas-Diaz was extradited back to Suffolk County on November 11, 2021, to be arraigned on the charges related to the murder.
On July 24, 2023, Vargas-Diaz pleaded guilty before Acting Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Steven A. Pilewski, to Murder in the Second Degree, a Class A violent felony, and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, a Class C violent felony.
On October 11, 2023, Justice Pilewski sentenced Vargas-Diaz to 23 years to life in prison. He was represented by Christopher Brocato, Esq.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Elena Tomaro of the Homicide Bureau and Carlos J. Benitez II of the Major Crime Bureau, with investigative assistance from the Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad and Sergeant Norberto Flores of the Internal Affairs Unit.
Criminal complaints and indictments are merely accusatory instruments. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one is above the law.