The trial of four men accused of kidnapping and murdering friends Jesse Parrilla and Nikki Huang — casualties of an escalating Lower East Side gang war whose bodies were discovered burned beyond recognition in 2022 — got off to an emotional start Tuesday, when the mother of one of the victims stormed out of the courtroom during a defense attorney’s opening statement.
Rahul Cuya, Richard Santiago, Terrence White and Jahmel Sanders appeared in Bronx Supreme Court four years after the bodies of Parrilla and Huang, both 22, were found inside a car on fire on Shore Road near Pelham Split Rock Golf Course in Pelham Bay Park.
A fifth suspect, Stephen Santiago, the older brother of Richard Santiago, is still on the loose.
Before their deaths, Huang and Parrilla went through “three hours of hell,” Bronx Assistant District Attorney Burim Namani told a courtroom packed with family members of both victims, as well as family members of all four suspects.
“They were kidnapped, held captive, driven all over the city of New York, and finally to a remote area of the Bronx, where they were shot and killed, and their bodies set on fire,” Namani said. “All because defendants…were retaliating and were sending messages to people.”
The convoluted series of events started when Huang’s expensive Louis Vuitton purse was stolen from her. That same night, Brandon Atkinson, the brother of Stephen and Richard Santiago, was shot to death on Manhattan’s Lower East Side by members of the “Up the Hill” gang that Huang was friendly with, according to police.
Though Atkinson was not the mugger, his death instantly amped up the longstanding feud between the “Up the Hill” and “Down the Hill” gangs, whose territories stretch from Pike St. to E. Sixth St. with the dividing line between the two crews known as “The Hill”— a rise in the road on Grand St. near Madison St.
Parrilla, who had been friends with Huang since middle school, drove her home that fateful night.
The defendants “showed complete disregard for everything that was decent,” Namani said. “Instead of mourning a loved one who was killed, they set out across the city to retaliate and kill two young kids who had nothing to do with them.”
Throughout Namani’s address, Huang’s mother sat collapsed with her head on her knees while Parrilla’s mom cried silently in the row behind her.
Lawyers for all four defendants painted Stephen Santiago as the ringleader and trigger man.
“During the opening statement, the prosecution spoke a lot about Stephen Santiago,” said Richard Santiago’s lawyer, Declan Murray, imploring the jury not to condemn one bother for the sins of the other. “Anything that you hear about Stephen Santiago cannot be imputed to Richard Santiago just because they have the same last name or just because they are related,” Murray said.