Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that GINA MESTRE, a former New York City Police (“NYPD”) Officer, was sentenced to 70 months in prison in connection with her involvement in obstructing a federal grand jury investigation into the Shooting Boys gang and serving as an accessory after the fact to a murder committed by a member of the gang. MESTRE pled guilty to the charges on December 7, 2023, in Manhattan federal court before U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote, who imposed this sentence.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “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.”
According to the allegations in the Indictment and other documents filed in federal court and based on statements made in public court proceedings:
MESTRE was an NYPD Officer assigned to the 52nd Precinct’s Public Safety Unit. In the summer of 2020, a major focus of both the precinct and the Public Safety Unit was the reduction of gun violence in the area. Much of that violence was attributed to members of the Shooting Boys, a violent street gang based in the University Heights section of the Bronx.
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.
MESTRE warned Done, and other gang members, that federal investigators were preparing to bring a federal indictment against the Shooting Boys. MESTRE also warned Done about impending law enforcement operations, which enabled Done and other gang members to dispose of weapons and conceal other criminal activity before law enforcement arrived on scene. In addition, MESTRE disclosed the identity of a cooperating witness who provided information about the gang to law enforcement. Armed with this information, Done and other Shooting Boys assaulted the witness to prevent the witness from further cooperation and to send a clear message within the gang that the punishment for cooperation would be severe.
On or about November 5, 2020, Done shot and killed a rival gang member (“Victim-1”) as Victim-1 sat in his car on Cromwell Avenue in the Bronx. NYPD Detectives investigating the murder recovered security camera video (the “Video”) capturing Done’s commission of the murder. Several members of the 52nd Precinct, including MESTRE, were tasked with identifying the shooter in the video. In fact, MESTRE was ultimately one of several officers who actually identified Done as the perpetrator.
Despite identifying Done as the shooter and ostensibly participating in the NYPD’s efforts to apprehend him, MESTRE sent Done a copy of the Video to his phone and secretly communicated with Done the day of the murder and in the weeks afterwards. Specifically, MESTRE warned Done about law enforcement’s efforts to capture him, allowing Done to eventually flee from the United States.
In March 2022, 10 members of the Shooting Boys were charged in a 15-count indictment with various federal crimes, including racketeering conspiracy and murder. Done was charged with the murder of Victim-1 and was apprehended in the Dominican Republic several months later.
On November 17, 2022, Done pled guilty to racketeering conspiracy and admitted to his role in the murder of Victim-1. On February 22, 2023, Done was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
In addition to the prison term, MESTRE, 33, of Mohegan Lakes, New York, was sentenced to two years of supervised release.
Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau, Group 25, and the Special Agents of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
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