MS-13 Gang Member Gets 50 Years For Role In Slaughtering 4 Youths: DOJ

CENTRAL ISLIP, NY — A woman known as "Little Devil" associated with the MS-13 gang was sentenced to 50 years in prison for luring four young men to a violent death in Central Islip, United States Attorney Peace announced Tuesday.

Leniz Escobar, also known as "Diablita," or "Little Devil, was sentenced to "600 months" in prison on Tuesday by Judge Joseph F. Bianco for luring five young men to a park where four of them were brutally murdered by MS-13 gang members, Peace said.

Escobar, an associate of the Leeward Locos Salvatruchas and Brentwood Locos Salvatruchas cliques of La Mara Salvatrucha, aka MS-13, played a central role in the murders of Justin Llivicura, 16, Michael Lopez, 20, Jorge Tigre, 18, and Jefferson Villalobos, 18, who were hacked to death with machetes and other sharp objects after she lured them to a local Central Islip park on April 11, 2017, Peace said.

In April 8 2022, Escobar was found guilty by a trial of racketeering, including predicate acts of murder, conspiracy to murder rival gang members, obstruction of justice and murder in aid-of racketeering in relation to the boys' murders, Peace said.

According to the investigation, on the evening of April 11, 2017, Escobar and co-conspirator Keyli Gomez lured five young men to a park in Central Islip where they were attacked by MS-13 members, including Josue Portillo, Freiry Martinez, Alexis Hernandez, Edwin Rodriguez, Sergio Segovia-Pineda, Omar Antonio Villalta, Henry Salmeron, Anderson Sanchez and others, Peace said.

Peace said the gang members thought the victims were members of a rival gang because they'd offended them by posting photos on social media wearing accessories and flashing hand signs that signified membership in the MS-13 gang.

Escobar and Gomez showed the photos to MS-13 members who confirmed the young men did not belong to MS-13 and decided they would kill them, Peace said. Gomez testified at the trial that she and Escobar drove with the victims to the park, led them to a wooded area and sent the MS-13 members text-messages notifying them of their arrival, Peace said.

Upon arrival, the MS-13 members surrounded the boys in the dark. One of the five successfully fled while Llivicura, Lopez, Tigre and Villalobos were surrounded by MS-13 members, who attacked them with machetes, knives, an axe and wooden clubs, Peace said.

After the attack, the MS-13 members dragged the victims’ bodies to a more secluded spot in the woods, piled them up and then fled, Peace said. The victims’ bodies were discovered the following evening.

In the days following the murders, Escobar bragged to other MS-13 members about her role in the murders and, in recorded calls with her boyfriend, who was a high ranking member of the Brentwood clique, discussed the attack in detail, Peace said.

According to Peace, while attempting to speak in code about the incident, Escobar said, “Four individuals took the train and who knows when they’ll be back, got me?” She then recalled that one of the boys escaped, saying, “But one of them, one of them managed to still be here on the map” and “he knows stuff about me.”

Peace said that in another call, Escobar told her boyfriend that she was “happy for this to happen.” Of the four victims, she said they were “never coming back . . . somewhere else . . . seeing the light . . . no more . . . out of here . . . not on the map.”

Additionally, Escobar destroyed evidence of her involvement in the murders by disposing of a sweatshirt stained with the blood of a victim, tossing her cellular phone from a moving vehicle when she was being followed by the police and falsely telling detectives that she and Gomez were victims of a random robbery in the park on the night of the murders.

According to Peace, over a dozen MS-13 members and associates have been charged in connection with murdering the young men, including the individuals listed above and so far, Escobar is the fifth person to be sentenced.

Josue Portillo was sentenced to 55 years in prison, Freiry Martinez was sentenced to 50 years in prison, Anderson Sanchez was sentenced to 32 years in prison, Alexis Hernandez was sentenced to 29 years in prison, and the remaining defendants are pending sentence, according to Peace.

“The defendant demonstrated her allegiance to the MS-13 gang by luring four young men to their slaughter,” said Peace. “Today’s significant sentence reflects not only the seriousness of her conduct but also the consequences of her actions including the terror and suffering experienced by the victims, and the life-altering grief that their families continue to suffer. It is my hope that the justice meted out today will provide some comfort to those who lost loved ones to this senseless gang violence.”