In the quiet neighborhood of Hempstead, New York, a dispute over unpaid wages and work tools escalated into a fatal encounter on the evening of January 12, 2021. Ricardo Cardona, a 40-year-old man, was gunned down outside his home in what prosecutors would later describe as a premeditated ambush. The series of events leading to his death began with a disagreement with Ruben Diego Avila Huicab, a man for whom Cardona had performed construction work.
Cardona had reportedly held onto Avila Huicab's tools to ensure he would be paid for his labor. This disagreement festered, with Avila Huicab sending increasingly threatening text messages to Cardona in the weeks that followed, including one on the day of the murder that chillingly read, 'say your goodbays to everyone'.
On that cold January night, at approximately 8:35 p.m., the dispute reached its violent conclusion near the intersection of Vermont Avenue and Dakota Place. Avila Huicab, then 31, and a 16-year-old accomplice from North Carolina, traveled to Cardona's residence in separate vehicles. Avila Huicab orchestrated the attack, providing the teenager with a semi-automatic pistol and instructing him to wait in a van. He then lured Cardona out of his house. As Cardona approached the van, the teenager fired seven shots, striking him five times in the neck and chest. First responders, alerted by a Shot Spotter notification, found Cardona lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to his head and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Following the shooting, Avila Huicab and his young accomplice fled the scene. An investigation was launched, and on January 27, 2021, both suspects were apprehended in Maryland. They were charged with second-degree murder. The case against Ruben Diego Avila Huicab proceeded to a jury trial, which began in June 2023. After about two hours of deliberation, the jury found Avila Huicab guilty of Murder in the Second Degree and two counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree. He was subsequently sentenced to 40 years to life in prison. The 16-year-old co-defendant pleaded guilty to Murder in the Second Degree and was awaiting sentencing.
