HAMPTON BAYS MAN FOUND GUILTY OF MURDER AND ROBBERY

(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that a jury found 42 year-old Alcides Lopez Cambara guilty in the deadly robbery and murder of 34-year-old Marco Grisales of East Hampton.

“The defendant and his accomplices senselessly and brutally murdered the victim on his birthday,” said District Attorney Tierney. “While the defendant’s murderous jealousy and greed ensured that this victim would never celebrate another birthday, the jury’s verdict ensures that this defendant will spend his birthday in prison for many years to come.”

The evidence at trial established that on November 11, 2020, Lopez Cambara, was with his girlfriend, Tyara Lemus, then aged 18, when she received a call from the victim, Marco Grisales. Grisales, 34, told Lemus it was his birthday and he asked if he could see her that night. The defendant heard the conversation and became jealous. As a result, he devised a plan to rob the victim with the help of Lemus. Lopez Cambara and Lemus planned for Lemus to lure Grisales out under the premise of celebrating his birthday. Lopez Cambara recruited two other individuals to help him rob Grisales.

Lemus set up a meeting with Grisales at a McDonald’s in Riverhead. After meeting Grisales, Lemus got into his pickup truck and drove with him to a nearby buffalo farm to party.
Lopez Cambara and the two others he had recruited, Dennis Jonathan Hernandez Abanao and an unidentified male, were already at the farm, lying in wait to rob Grisales. After Lemus and Grisales parked, Lopez Cambara and the unidentified male dragged Grisales out of the car and bludgeoned him to death with the barrel of a shotgun. Hernandez Abanao and Lemus stole jewelry and other valuables from the victim’s car. Lopez Cambara tore a gold chain from the victim’s neck, then the three men put his lifeless body in the bed of his own pickup truck.

Lopez Cambara drove Grisales’ pickup truck from the scene with Grisales’ body in the back. He parked it a short distance away, on Roanoke Avenue, partially blocking the roadway. A passerby saw the pickup blocking the road and called 911 to report a disabled vehicle. Responding officers from the Riverhead Police Department discovered Grisales’s body in the bed of the truck.
In the days following the murder, Lemus, using an alias, called police, and provided information about the other individuals involved in the crime. On December 9, 2020, Lemus and Lopez Cambara were arrested and charged with the murder and robbery of Grisales. Lemus pleaded guilty to Robbery in the First Degree for her role in this crime. Hernandez Abanao pleaded guilty to Attempted Murder in the Second Degree for his participation in this crime. Both are pending sentence.

Lemus testified at the trial and gave a detailed description of Lopez Cambara’s involvement in the murder. Her testimony was corroborated by surveillance videos from both a McDonald’s and nearby hospital that captured Grisales’s pickup and the defendant’s vehicle as they travelled to the location of the murder, as well as cell site records from both Lemus and Lopez Cambara’s cell phones. The evidence also included items recovered during the execution of a search warrant at the home shared by Lopez Cambara and Lemus, including the victim’s jewelry and the shotgun used to bludgeon the victim, which was adorned with a distinctive bejeweled skull. Finally, a download of Lemus’s phone led to the recovery of What’sApp conversations wherein Lemus and Lopez Cambara discussed their plan to lure the victim to the location of the murder.

Lopez Cambara was convicted by the jury of Murder in the Second Degree and Robbery in the First Degree. Upon sentencing, he faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison. The trial was heard before Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Anthony S. Senft, Jr. Lopez Cambara is represented by John Halverson, Esq., and Christopher Gioe, Esq. He is due back in court for sentencing on January 13, 2023.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Dena Rizopoulos and James O’Rourke of the Major Crimes Bureau.

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Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one is above the law.

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