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Alejandro Wilson Mejia-Velez was given a life sentence in a U.S. federal prison for the contract murder of journalist Manuel de Dios Unanue. However, as reported by the New York Daily News in a report on April 8, 2022, his sentence was reduced to 34 years by a Brooklyn Federal judge.
Mejia-Velez was found guilty in 1994 of acting as the gunman in the high-profile killing, which was commissioned by top officials of Colombia's Cali cartel (Justia Law).
The assassination, which occurred in a Queens restaurant in 1992, was in direct retaliation for de Dios Unanue's investigative journalism reporting on drug smuggling. Mejia-Velez, according to court documents and media reports, remains in prison with no possibility of parole.
The case of Alejandro Wilson Mejia-Velez and the murder of journalist Manuel de Dios Unanue is featured in New York Homicide season 3 episode 12, titled Dangerous Work. It is set to premiere on Oxygen on Saturday, April 19, 2025, at 9 pm EST.
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The assassination of Manuel de Dios Unanue
On March 11, 1992, Cuban-born journalist and former editor-in-chief of El Diario-La Prensa, Manuel de Dios Unanue, was shot twice in the head while enjoying a drink at the bar of Queens-based restaurant Meson Asturias. The assailant, later identified as Alejandro Wilson Mejia-Velez, was just 17 years old, according to the Los Angeles Times reports on March 10, 1994.
According to investigators, Alejandro Wilson Mejia-Velez entered the restaurant with his face covered. He approached de Dios Unanue from behind and shot two 9-millimeter bullets into his head before leaving the scene.
As per court documents, De Dios Unanue was particularly renowned for his investigative reporting, revealing the activities of Colombian drug cartels, the Cali cartel in particular.
Cartel leaders allegedly placed a $50,000 bounty on his head. The killing marked the first known case of a journalist murdered on U.S. territory by Colombian drug traffickers, pointing to the influence and reach of the cartels.
The investigation and prosecution of Alejandro Wilson Mejia-Velez
The murder investigation involved the NYPD, federal law enforcement, and international law enforcement agencies. The NYPD, federal agencies, and cooperating co-conspirators assisted in identifying Alejandro Wilson Mejia-Velez as the shooter based on witness descriptions, forensic identification, and information from co-conspirators, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Other suspects in the case included John Harold Mena, who was charged with orchestrating the murder. Jose James Benitez and Elkin Farley Salazar were also implicated for planning and helping to execute the attack.
As per the Los Angeles Times, Alejandro Wilson Mejia-Velez was arrested in Miami over a year after the murder and extradited to New York to face trial.
According to the court documents, during the trial, accomplice testimony and physical evidence connected him directly to the shooting. Prosecutors stated that Mejia-Velez was selected for the assignment because he allegedly had boasted of having committed homicides in Colombia previously.
On March 9, 1994, Alejandro Wilson Mejia-Velez was convicted by a jury and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, as stated on Justia U.S. Law.
Post-conviction
As per the New York Daily Post, on April 8, 2022, a federal judge in Brooklyn reportedly reduced Alejandro Wilson Meija-Velez's prison sentence to 34 years. He was originally sentenced to life in prison 31 years ago for a killing he committed as a teenager.
As reported by the New York Daily News, Alejandro Wilson Mejia-Velez expressed deep remorse and thanked the judge for the sentence reduction. Speaking through an interpreter and reading a letter in Spanish, he reportedly stated:
"There are no words with which to express the remorse I feel every day of my life for having made this decision, which caused so much pain and suffering. I ask forgiveness from the bottom of my heart. I am a completely different person that the adolescent you sentenced 30 years ago to spend the rest of his life in prison."
The remaining co-conspirators in the case, John Mena and Elkin Farley Salazar, received shorter sentences for their cooperation and testifying against Mejia-Velez, as per reports by The New York Times, dated October 24, 1993.
The man allegedly responsible for giving the order to execute the hit, José Santacruz Londoño, leader of the Cali cartel, was never extradited to America. The Washington Post article dated March 6, 1996, reported that he was subsequently killed in a gun battle after escaping from the prison.
