MS-13 ‘Little Devil’ guilty on all counts in LI machete massacre
April 11, 2022
Leniz 'Little Devil' Escobar
The Long Island woman dubbed MS-13’s “Little Devil” was convicted Monday of federal murder and racketeering charges for luring four young men into a deadly ambush at the hands of the notoriously vicious gang.
Linez “Diablita” Escobar, 22, was found guilty on all six charges after just 16 minutes of deliberations on Monday morning and jurors weighed the charges for about three hours Friday. She faces up to life in prison at her sentencing, which is scheduled for Sept. 14.
Escobar showed no emotion as the verdict was read in the courtroom, sitting stiff-shouldered and staring forward blankly.
Escobar was charged in federal court in Central Islip with helping orchestrate the brutal 2017 machete massacre.
“With today’s verdict, Escobar has been held responsible for the crucial role that she willingly played in orchestrating one of the most vicious and senseless mass murders in the district in memory,” Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.
“The defendant showed utter disregard for human life by leading the victims into a killing field, to their slaughter, to enhance her stature with her fellow cold-blooded murderers within the MS-13 gang,” Peace said.
The victims, who believed they were meeting her to smoke marijuana in a local park, were caught in a trap and attacked by the savage gangsters in what federal prosecutors called “a horrific frenzy of violence.”
Prosecutors said during closing arguments Wednesday that Escobar, who was 17 at the time, convinced MS-13 members that the victims “mocked” them by posting pictures throwing gang signs on social media.
Prosecutors relied on testimony from several gang members, including Escobar’s then-boyfriend, to make a case against her.
“You heard [gang member] David Gaitan-Rivera’s testimony,” Assistant US Attorney Justina Geraci told jurors. “He told you how one of the victims had reached for [Escobar] before he was killed and his blood had gotten all over her shirt.
“He told you how she licked the blood off her lips.”
Five young men were ambushed during the April 11, 2017 massacre, with four of them –Miguel Lopez, 20, Justin Llivicura, 16, and Jefferson Villalobos and Jose Tigre, both 18 — hacked to death and left in a pool of blood.
Their mangled bodies were found nearby the next day.
“This was by far one of the most horrific crime scenes we’ve ever handled,” Suffolk County Homicide Detective Jefffrey Bottari testified at the trial. “It will be etched in my memory, as it will be for everyone after this. It was unimaginable.”
Police
set up a crime scene at a park in Central Islip, Long Island, where
four mutilated bodies of young men were found on April 13, 2017The fifth intended victim, Elmer Alexander Arteaga Ruiz, now 22, ran for his life and managed to get away.
He lived to testify against Escobar.
“They said, ‘Don’t move. Whoever moves, dies,’” Ruiz told the jury. “I ran because the first words they said was that we were going to die, they were going to kill us, and they had weapons.”
Ruiz said he and his friends posted the photos using MS-13 hand signs — perceived as a sign of disrespect by the gang — because he thought it would attract girls and were “not thinking of the consequences.”
He said that “Diablita,” Escobar’s Snapchat handle, “fit her well.”
Prosecutors said Escobar later bragged to her MS-13 boyfriend over several phonecalls that she was “happy” she set up the massacre.
MS-13 gang associate Keyli Gomez testified against Leniz “Diablita” EscobarIn court, Escobar repeatedly smiled and joked with her defense team, telling one of her lawyers on the opening of the trial, “Big day.”
Her chilling mugshot shows her smirking while giving the camera a cold stare.
Defense attorney Jesse Siegel maintained that his client was at the scene of the massacre — but did not know that the victims would be attacked.
“I would say that we’re disappointed, but we do appreciate the time and effort put in by the jury,” he said after the verdict Monday.
“The first thing we’re going to have to handle is sentencing, which is scheduled for September, and there’s a lot of work to be done,” Siegel said. “So, when it’s time to sentence Leniz, Judge [Joseph] Bianco has a good idea who she is. People should not be defined solely for the worst thing they ever do.”
He said Escobar “had an extraordinarily difficult life.”
During the trial, Siegel also dismissed the testimony of Escobar’s boyfriend, Sergio Vladimir Segovia Pineda, and other MS-13 gangsters who took the stand.
“The jury should not rely on the witnesses that the government put forward, meaning these cooperating witnesses who are all extremely bad people who are testifying pursuant to cooperation agreements,” he said as he left the courthouse last week.
Friends and family of Leniz Escobar leave federal court in Central Islip, NYEscobar’s cousin, Cindy Escobar, told reporters she had “a very difficult life since she was very young,” and “didn’t have a father. Didn’t have a mother. Didn’t have a stable childhood.”
Four other MS-13 members also accused of carrying out the fatal attack are awaiting trial, while two others have been sentenced to 50 and 55 years in prison.
One of them, Jorge Portillo, who was just 15 at the time of the killing spree, pleaded guilty to charges of murder, racketeering and conspiracy in 2019.
MS-13, a notoriously vicious gang also known as La Mara Salvatrucha, was founded by Central American immigrants in Los Angeles in the 1980s. It has since grown into a global criminal enterprise — with a stronghold on Long Island.
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