An ex-New York cop who shared a jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein at the time of the convicted sex offender's suicide was found guilty of murdering four men before burying his victims in a mass grave.
Nicholas Tartaglione faces life behind bars after a jury found him guilty of the killings of Martin Luna, Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna and Hector Gutierrez, according to a statement from US justice department prosecutors.
Back in 2019, the 55-year-old was named as the cellmate of Epstein around the time that the wealthy financier took his own life in his cell while he was in custody on federal charges of sex trafficking underage girls and conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking. Some of the victims were as young as 14.
The disgraced billionaire was arrested in July 2019 and was denied bail ahead of his trial.
According to the indictment, "over the course of many years, Jeffrey Epstein, the defendant, sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations."
The indictment also stated that "in order to maintain and increase his supply of victims, Epstein also paid certain of his victims to recruit additional girls to be similarly abused."
Federal prosecutors searched his New York City home after he was arrested. As resported by the New York Times, "during the search of his townhouse [...] investigators seized [incriminating] photographs."
Epstein pleaded not guilty and was denied bail. He later died by suicide in his cell before the trial.
In the case that Tartaglione had been detained for in 2019, he was cleared of any wrongdoing.
However, in this more recent case, he was accused of having become a drug dealer after he retired as a police officer in Briarcliff Manor, New York
He believed that Martin Luna had stolen money from him and so, according to the prosecution, he lured him to a meeting in Chester - around 60 miles north of New York - and ambushed him
Martin Luna had his two nephews - Miguel Luna and Santiago - as well as a family friend, Gutierrez, accompanied him to the meeting. When he got there, he experienced a terrifying ordeal which saw Tartaglione torture him and strangle him to death with a zip-tie while one of his nephews looked on.
He and his accomplices then took the deceased man's nephews and friend away, forced them to their knees and then fatally shot them in the back of their heads, per officials. Tartaglione then buried all four men in a grave dug at a property that he was renting before their bodies were discovered some eight months later.
