QUEENS — Two men who crashed a birthday party and beat a teen to death while yelling anti-gay slurs in 2011 pleaded guilty to manslaughter Monday, the Queens District Attorney’s office announced.
Jonathan Echevarria and Nolis Ogando, both 22, were part of a group of six teenagers who chased down and beat up 18-year-old Anthony Collao after he left a Woodhaven party hosted by two gay men, the DA said.
Three of the six attackers armed themselves with a stick, a pipe and a cane before catching Collao on 90th Street near 88th Street around 12:50 a.m. on March 12, 2011.
Collao, who had recently graduated from high school, was thrown to the ground, punched, kicked, whipped with a piece of lattice fencing, then robbed of his Atlanta Braves baseball cap and sneakers.
The gang — made up of Echevarria, Ogando, Alex Velez, Calvin Pietri, Luis Tabales and Christopher Lozada — fled the scene but five were caught 15 minutes after the attack. The last was caught three months later.
Echevarria, of Brooklyn, and Ogando, of Queens, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Queens Supreme Court on Monday and will be sentenced later this month.
Echevarria will be sentenced on Sept. 28 and faces 18 years in prison while Ogando will be sentenced on Sept. 22 and faces eight years in prison, the DA said.
Pietri, Tabales, and Loza, all 22, pleaded to gang assault in 2013 and were sentenced to 16, 12 and four years respectively while Velez, also 22, pleaded to manslaughter in April and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
“This was a horribly brutal and unprovoked attack,” said District Attorney Richard Brown in a statement on Wednesday.
“The last two defendants in this case have now admitted their roles in this heinous attack that cost a young man his life.”
Echevarria and Ogando’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
