29 Dec 2010 09:29 AM EST

- by Sarah Jordan, Contributing Writer

The Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang member suspected of having killed a woman and her child last February will be tried as an adult, according to the New York Daily News.

The defendant, whose name has not been made public, was 17 at the time of the execution-style murder.  The MS-13 gang member killed 19-year-old mom Vanessa Argueta and her two-year-old son in a warehouse in Central Islip, Long Island.

The murder was done in part as an act of vengeance by MS-13.  Argueta had once dated a member of MS-13 until that person shot her.  She then spoke to a rival gang and put a hit out on him.  MS-13's retaliation was allegedly carried out in the aforementioned warehouse.

Federal Judge Joseph Blanco decided to try the suspect as an adult citing the fact that the juvenile justice system is "ill-equipped" and "woefully insufficient" to deal with a crime of this magnitude.

Argueta was shot in the chest and in the head.  Her two-year-old son was shot twice in the head in the grisly murder.

MS-13, which originated in El Salvador, is one of the most lethal gangs in operating in the United States.  The violent group of criminals also operates in Central America and Mexico.