Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced that Dennis Jonathan Hernandez Abanao, 23, was sentenced today to 18 years in prison with five years of post-release supervision, for his role in the robbery and murder of 34-year-old Marco Grisales of East Hampton.
“This defendant played a role in facilitating the violent and premeditated murder and robbery of the victim who, at the time, was under the impression he was meeting with a woman to celebrate his own birthday,” said District Attorney Tierney. “This sentence sends a message to anyone who would consider taking part in carrying out such acts that it will not be tolerated, and we will hold all co-conspirators responsible for their murderous actions.”
On September 21, 2022, Hernandez Abanao pleaded guilty before Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Anthony S. Senft, Jr., to Attempted Murder in the Second Degree, a Class B violent felony. Hernandez Abanao was represented by Ian Fitzgerald, Esq.
According to the evidence presented during the December 2022 trial of co-defendant Alicides Lopez Cambara, on November 11, 2020, Hernandez Abanao took part in helping Lopez Cambara, Tyara Lemus, then aged 18, and the girlfriend of Lopez Cambara, and an unapprehended co-conspirator, to kill the victim Marco Grisales.
Lopez Cambara was with Lemus when she received a call from Grisales. Grisales told Lemus it was his birthday and he asked if he could see her that night. Lopez Cambara overheard their conversation and became jealous. As a result, he devised a plan to rob Grisales with the help of Lemus.
Lopez Cambara and Lemus then planned for Lemus to lure Grisales out, under the guise of celebrating his birthday. Hernandez Abanao and a second unidentified male were recruited by Lopez Cambara 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, Hernandez Abanao, and the unapprehended male were already at the farm waiting to rob Grisales. After Lemus and Grisales parked, Lopez Cambara and the unapprehended male dragged Grisales out of the car and bludgeoned him to death with the barrel of a shotgun.
On December 13, 2022, Lopez Cambara was convicted after a jury trial heard before Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Anthony S. Senft, Jr., of Murder in the Second Degree and Robbery in the First Degree. On January 23, 2023 he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison with five years of post-release supervision. Judge Senft, Jr. presided over the cases for all three defendants.
He also sentenced Lemus to eight years in prison plus three years post release supervision after she pleaded guilty to Robbery in the First Degree for her role in the crime.
During his plea allocution, Hernandez Abanao admitted he and Lemus had stolen jewelry and other valuables from Grisales’s car. Lopez Cambara tore a gold chain from Grisales’s neck, then the three men put his lifeless body in the bed of his own pickup truck.
Lopez Cambara then 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’ body in the bed of the truck.
On December 9, 2020, Lemus and Lopez Cambara were arrested and charged with the robbery and murder of Grisales. Abanao was arrested on May 22, 2021.
Lemus testified at Lopez Cambara’s trial and gave a detailed description of both his and Hernandez Abanao’s involvement in the robbery and murder. Her testimony was corroborated by surveillance videos from both a McDonald’s and nearby hospital that captured Grisales’s pickup and Lopez Cambara’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 Grisales’s jewelry and the shotgun used to bludgeon him, which was adorned with a distinctive bejeweled skull. Finally, a download of Lemus’s phone led to the recovery of WhatsApp conversations wherein Lemus and the defendant discussed their plan to lure Grisales to the location of the murder.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Dena Rizopoulos and James O’Rourke of the Major Crimes Bureau.
