Three men in Suffolk County pleaded guilty to beating and stabbing a homeless man, then leaving him to die in a roadside tent.
Jhon Lopez Campos and Julio Beltran of El Salvador, along with Guatemalan man Brayan Heredia Escobar, copped to committing manslaughter in the first degree in death of 39-year-old Candido Guadalupe Saravia Martinez. The victim is also from El Salvador.
Suffolk County prosecutors said Saravia Martinez suffered blunt force trauma to his face and body and was stabbed in his neck prior to being found dead in February 2025. Authorities also discovered a rope around the victim’s neck. He and his killers were said to have been homeless in West Islip at the time of his death.
Investigators said a machete and a bloody knife were located inside Saravia Martinez’s tent. Video surveillance from area businesses recorded three suspects running from that tent on the day of the killing.
Lopez Campo, 18, and Beltran, 40, confessed to holding Saravia Martinez down while Lopez Campo, 18, battered him with the handle of a machete. Prosecutors said Lopez Campo then handed a knife to Heredia Escobar and instructed him to stab Saravia Martinez. The defendants allegedly claimed the killing was revenge from an alleged altercation that occurred months earlier.
Prosecutors said Beltran pleaded guilty to his part in the killing Tuesday and faces a sentence of 22 years in prison. Lopez Campo and Heredia Escobar entered pleas last week. They face sentences of 25 and 20 years respectively.
