NEW YORK – A retired police officer in Briarcliff Manor, New York, was sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison for the murder of four individuals, including a man he tortured and strangled over allegedly stolen drug money. Nicholas Tartaglione, 56, had been convicted the previous year, a case that gained notoriety due to the brutality of the crimes. Tartaglione’s brief cellmate was Jeffery Epstein, who died by suicide while facing federal sex trafficking charges.
The victim of Tartaglione’s torture, Martin Luna, was believed to have taken $250,000 meant for cocaine, according to prosecutors. The other three victims were individuals who were in Luna’s company at a club when Tartaglione and his associates abducted them in 2016.
During the gruesome crime, Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna, and Hector Gutierrez were forced to witness Martin Luna being strangled by Tartaglione with a zip tie before they were fatally shot. The bodies of the four men were discovered buried on Tartaglione’s property in Otisville, New York.
Tartaglione had worked for several suburban police departments before retiring on disability in 2008. Despite maintaining his innocence, Tartaglione argued during the trial that he ran an animal rescue farm and was not driven by financial gain.
One of Tartaglione’s alleged accomplices in the murders took his own life in 2017 as FBI agents were preparing to arrest him. Another individual, Joseph Biggs, was sentenced to 16 years in prison after admitting to killing one of the victims and testifying at Tartaglione’s trial.
Although Tartaglione was not Epstein’s cellmate at the time of the latter’s death, his lawyer claimed he played a crucial role as a witness in the subsequent investigation into Epstein’s suicide. The former cop had shared a cell with Epstein several weeks prior, leading to heightened scrutiny after Epstein was found with neck bruises and placed on suicide watch.