An ex-New York cop who was once Jeffrey Epstein’s cellmate will spend the rest of his life behind bars in the slayings of four men after a federal judge reportedly blasted him for caring about animals more than the victims he killed.
Nicholas Tartaglione, 56, received four life sentences for arranging the kidnapping and murders of Martin Luna, 41, Luna’s nephews Urbano Santiago, 35, Miguel Luna, 25, and close family friend Hector Gutierrez, 43.
He then buried them in shallow graves on his own property in 2016, federal prosecutors said.
During the sentencing, Tartaglione was admonished by US District Judge Kenneth Karas as a remorseless “monster.”
Karas also slammed the former Briarcliff Manor cop for caring “more about animals than the victims” after his defense team listed their client’s effort saving cats, dogs, pigs, skunks and horses, The JournalNews reported.
“Nicholas Tartaglione brutally and senselessly murdered Martin Luna over money, and then ruthlessly executed Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna, and Hector Gutierrez simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in a statement.
Tartaglione killed Martin Luna because he thought he stole about $250,000 from him that was supposed to go toward buying cocaine, prosecutors said.
Martin Luna was lured to a Chester bar, where he was then confronted by Tartaglione. He was restrained and pummeled the ex-cop for more than an hour before he was strangled with a zip-tie when he didn’t give up where the money was.
Santiago, Miguel Luna and Hector Gutierrez were shot once in the back of the head because they were with Luna at the time of his run-in with Tartaglione and witnessed the murder, prosecutors said.
All four victims were then buried in a mass grave in a remote part of his property until they were found eight months later.
Tartaglione briefly shared a jail cell with pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein at the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Epstein claimed to his lawyers that the former police officer “roughed him up” in the cell.
Epstein was found dead in his jail cell ahead of his sex trafficking trial in 2019 that was ruled a suicide.
Tartaglione was found guilty of murder and kidnapping last April by a federal jury.
On Monday, Martin’s sister Celia Luna said she will never forgive Tartaglione and “prays and hopes” he never gets out of jail, according to The Journal News.
“An animal from the street has a better heart than this person,” she said.
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