SI gang leader forced to kill because he was losing war with rivals: feds

According to federal authorities, Gorilla Stone Mafia leader John Pena lost a turf war against his hated rivals on Staten Island and faced the prospect of mutiny, so he used revenge and murder to resolve his leadership crisis.

Pena, 32, who goes by the nickname “Tragedy,” is on trial in federal court in Brooklyn on racketeering and murder charges after he killed two rivals to maintain his grip on the Bloods-affiliated street gang.

“The gang placed the highest value on violence,” Assistant District Attorney Elias Laris told the jury in his opening statement Wednesday. “Since 2019, GSM (Gorilla Stone Mafia) has been at war with a rival gang. … As the leader of GSM, the defendant lost control. GSM lost the war.”

That war, court documents show, was between the Gorilla Stone Mafia of Stapleton and the “Bugatti,” another gang that operated out of Staten Island’s Mariners Harbor neighborhood.

Three of Pena’s Gorilla Stone Mafia associates were murdered between December 2019 and April 2020, including one of Pena’s relatives. Prosecutors say the gang believed Bugatti was responsible.

When two members of Pena’s gang crossed over to the winning team, Pena had to answer for that betrayal with blood, Laris said.

“He reached a turning point. He had to get revenge,” the prosecutor said.

Pena’s first target was Mark Bajandas, 26, who went by the nickname “Drama,” the prosecutor said.

Federal authorities say he was lured back to their compound, the Stapleton Houses, by Bajandas’ former henchmen for a memorial service for a slain Gorilla Stone mobster.

“They told him it was safe to come. They told him not to bring a weapon,” Laris said.

But those assurances were a lie and Tragedy made sure that Drama would not return alive, Laris said.

According to the prosecutor, Pena shot him more than ten times on March 10, 2021, then calmly walked away as he bled to death.

Three months later, he executed another rival, a former Gorilla Stone mafia member named Francisco Gonzalez, who was expelled from the gang and designated to be killed “on sight” after a 2017 drug dispute, federal authorities said.

Gonzalez was dating Pena’s ex-girlfriend and on June 22, 2021, while Gonzalez was sleeping in her bed, Pena broke in, walked up to his rival and shot him three times in the head, Laris said.

Laris said the jury will see video surveillance that shows the defendant at the scene of each killing — including standing a few feet away from Bajandas before his shooting, and walking away afterward. The feds also plan to present a 911 caller they say identifies Pena as Bajandas’ killer.

Prosecutors also hope to call a witness who left the Gorilla Stone Mafia to join a rival gang, as well as handwritten notes and videos of Pena bragging about the killings.

Two years later, he rapped about it with the line, “He left his brains on them sheets, man, what was he thinking?” according to court documents from prosecutors.

Pena’s attorney, Sam Gregory, argued that the case against his client is far from closed. He cast doubt on the witness who called 911 and named several other possible suspects who were in the vicinity of the killings.

“There’s a lot of video in this case,” Gregory said. “There’s no video of Mark Bajandas being murdered. There’s video before. There’s video after, and there’s video of the scene.”

The 911 caller gave a conflicting description of the shooter and what he was wearing when speaking to investigators, Gregory said.

“He wants to be involved in the case and thinks he knows what happened. He didn’t see the shooting,” Gregory said.

“This case is not as strong as they claim,” he added.

After the opening statement, the jury heard from Bajandas’ mother, Nydia Lasanta, 49, who described him as a “loving, funny, always joking boy, a happy child.”

He was friends with Pena for years and they called each other “Gemini,” but that changed after he returned from prison in late 2020 after serving a sentence for weapons possession, she said.

She said that once, when she was driving him through the Bronx, where she lived, he pulled his hoodie over his head and started acting nervous.

“He told me to drive faster,” she said. When he arrived at her apartment, he began pacing nervously, saying, “I have to get out of here.”

“Trag, he has his people here,” he explained to her, referring to Pena’s nickname, Tragedy.

The trial continues on Thursday.