MINEOLA, N.Y. – Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that Deshawn Martin, 28, of Hempstead, was convicted by a jury on June 4, 2025, for a series of violent robberies and the cold-blooded murder of a bystander during a 2022 attempted robbery in Hempstead.
Martin was found guilty of Murder in the First Degree, six counts of Robbery in the First Degree, four counts of Criminal Use of a Firearm, and additional felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from seven separate incidents between October 2021 and February 2022. He faces life in prison without parole and is scheduled for sentencing on July 21, 2025.
The most heinous of Martin’s crimes occurred on January 30, 2022, when he entered Antojitos Express restaurant in Hempstead with a loaded firearm. According to prosecutors, he pistol-whipped a customer before 49-year-old Santos Valeriano Argueta attempted to intervene. Martin pushed Argueta outside the restaurant and shot him three times at close range, including a fatal shot to the chest. After Argueta fell, Martin robbed him and fled.
District Attorney Donnelly condemned the killing, calling Argueta “a decent and honorable man” who died while trying to protect others. “This defendant is nothing more than a cold-blooded killer and a true career criminal,” she said.
Martin’s robbery spree didn’t end there. Just four days later, on February 3, 2022, he committed two more gunpoint robberies—first at a 7-Eleven in Uniondale, then hours later at a Dunkin Donuts in Westbury.
Martin was also convicted for three additional robberies from October 2021, targeting businesses in Merrick, Hicksville, and Plainview. In each case, he entered the stores pretending to be armed, demanded money, and fled with stolen cash.
He was finally arrested on February 9, 2022, in Freeport by detectives with the Nassau County Police Department’s Homicide Squad and Bureau of Special Operations.
The case was prosecuted by Deputy Bureau Chief Veronica Guariglia of the Homicide Bureau, under the supervision of Bureau Chief Jared Rosenblatt and Executive Assistant District Attorney Kevin Higgins. Martin was represented by Jeffrey Groder, Esq.
