MS-13 USED MACHETES, KNIVES AND AX TO MURDER FOUR RIVAL GANG MEMBERS

Female suspect known as ‘Little Devil’ to be tried as adult in grisly MS-13 slayings

By Elizabeth Rosner and Ebony Bowden

New York Post
December 27, 2019

A young woman who is accused of luring four MS-13 gang murder victims to their deaths in a brutal 2017 slaying, will be prosecuted as an adult, a judge ruled Thursday.

The suspect was eight months shy of her 18th birthday when she participated in the savage 2017 slayings on Long Island — luring members of a rival gang into a wooded area in Central Islip with another female where they were bludgeoned to death.

On Thursday, the US Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s decision to prosecute the woman — identified as “Diablita,” or “Little Devil” in court — as an adult in connection with the murder of Michael Lopez, Justin Llivicura, Jorge Tigre and Jefferson Villalobos.

Judge Joseph F. Bianco detailed the woman’s conduct in his decision, including, “instigating the murders, along with another juvenile female, by locating photographs of some of the victims flashing MS-13 gang signs on social media (which was viewed as disrespectful because the victims were not members of MS-13), and then showing those photographs to MS-13 members.”

She also “knowingly lured the unsuspecting victims to a prearranged location in the Central Islip woods where they were murdered with machetes, knives and tree limbs,” Judge Bianco said.

Four male MS-13 gang members are already awaiting trial for the quadruple murders — two others have pled guilty and were sentenced to 50 years and 55 years in prison.

Prosecutors alleged the group schemed to have a pair of female associates lure the five suspected rivals from the 18th Street gang to a wooded area.

Josue Portillo, 18, pleaded guilty to stabbing four suspected rival teen gang members and bludgeoning them to death in a municipal park in what prosecutors called a “horrific frenzy of violence.”

Portillo, who was just 15 when he committed the slayings, faced life in prison for the savage murders — but a federal judge went easy on him in June, giving him 55 years.