MS-13 Member Pleads Guilty To 4 Brentwood Murders, Attempts: Feds

BRENTWOOD, NY — A former MS-13 gang member pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday, to participating in four murders between 2016 and 2017, as well as four other attempted murders, and racketeering and firearms, United States Attorney Eastern District of New York Breon Peace announced.

Enrique Portillo, 26, of Brentwood, also known as “Oso” and “Turkey,” a member of the Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside (Sailors) clique of La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as the MS-13, pleaded guilty to racketeering and firearms charges in connection with his participation in the Sept. 13, 2016 murders of teenagers Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens, in Brentwood; the Oct. 13, 2016 murder of Dewann Stacks, in Brentwood; and the Jan. 30, 2017 murder of Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla in Central Islip, prosecutors said.

“These senseless and barbaric killings, including those of teenagers Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens, shook our communities and reverberated around the nation,” stated SCPD Commissioner Harrison. “It is my hope that this guilty plea will provide the victims’ families some peace while also demonstrating our commitment to dismantling these criminal enterprises. I commend the work of the Long Island Gang Task Force on this case and Eastern District of New York for their continued success in prosecuting these vicious gang members.”

According to court filings and statements made during the guilty plea proceeding, he committed the following crimes in order to maintain and increase his membership and status in the gang:

July 18, 2016 Attempted Murders of John Doe #1 and John Doe #2

On the evening of July 18, 2016, Portillo and other members of the MS-13, were driving around Brentwood, armed, in search of rival gang members to attack and kill, observed a group of men on Apple Street, prosecutors said.

Believing these men to be members of a rival gang, Portillo and two other MS-13 members exited the car and attacked the group, officials said.

Portillo fired a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun at one of the men (identified as John Doe #1), and then used a machete to hack at another (identified as John Doe #2), prosecutors said. Another MS-13 member fired at the group of men using a .38 caliber handgun, officials added.

Although John Doe #1 was struck with a bullet, he survived, prosecutors said. John Doe #2, who was attacked with a machete, also survived, but was severely disfigured as a result of this attack, officials added.

September 12, 2016 - Arson in Brentwood

During the summer of 2016, Sailors clique members of MS-13 were regularly having altercations with rival gang members based in a neighborhood on Freeman Avenue in Brentwood, prosecutors said.

On Sept. 12, 2016, the MS-13 members set fire to a car parked in the driveway of one of the houses in that neighborhood. Portillo and other MS-13 members drove to that house, where Portillo and two others poured gasoline on a car parked in the driveway and then set it on fire. The car exploded and ignited another parked car, officials said.

Sept. 13, 2016 Murders of Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens

On Sept. 13, 2016, Portillo and several other MS-13 members brutally murdered 15-year-old Nisa Mickens and 16-year-old Kayla Cuevas, both students at Brentwood High School, prosecutors said.

In the months leading up to the murders, Cuevas was involved in a series of disputes with members and associates of the MS-13, federal officials said. About one week before the murders, the disputes escalated when Cuevas and several friends were involved in an altercation with MS-13 members at Brentwood High School; after that incident, the MS-13 members vowed to seek revenge against Cuevas, prosecutors said.

On the evening of Sept. 13, 2016, Portillo and other members of the Sailors clique of the MS-13, who were driving around Brentwood in search of rival gang members to attack and kill, spotted Cuevas and Mickens walking on Stahley Street in a residential neighborhood, prosecutors said

Recognizing Cuevas, they quickly sought and obtained the requisite permission to murder the teen girls, officials added.

Portillo and others then jumped out of the car, chased and attacked both Cuevas and Mickens, wielding baseball bats and a machete, striking each of the girls numerous times in their heads and bodies, causing their deaths, prosecutors said.

Mickens, whose body was discovered later that evening on Stahley Street, not far from Cuevas’s home, sustained significant sharp force trauma to her face and blunt force trauma to her head, police said. Cuevas, whose body was discovered the following day behind a house adjacent to where Mickens’s body was found, sustained significant blunt force trauma to her head and body and multiple lacerations, officials added.

Cuevas's mother Evelyn Rodriguez was fatally struck on the way to her memorial service, officials said.

October 13, 2016 Murder of Dewann Stacks

On the evening of Oct. 13, 2016, Portillo and other members of the MS-13 were once again driving around Central Islip and Brentwood in search of rival gang members to attack and kill, according to court filings and statements at the guilty plea.

That night, they spotted 34-year-old Dewann Stacks and, believing him to be a rival gang member, decided to kill him, prosecutors said.

Portillo, armed with a baseball bat, and two other MS-13 members, both armed with machetes, attacked Stacks, beating and hacking him to death on American Boulevard, a residential street in Brentwood, prosecutors said.

Stacks sustained severe sharp and blunt force trauma to his face and head, leaving him nearly unrecognizable, officials added.

Jan. 30, 2017 Murder of Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla

On the morning of Jan. 30, 2017, members of the Sailors clique of MS-13 spotted 29-year-old Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla inside El Campesino Deli in Central Islip, officials said.

Alvarado-Bonilla was wearing a football jersey bearing the number “18,” which led the MS-13
to conclude that he was a member of a rival gang, and they plotted to kill him, prosecutors said.

Portillo identified Alvarado-Bonilla to other MS-13 members as their target, and kept watch over him to ensure that he remained at the deli, prosecutors said.

Other MS-13 members then arrived at the deli to commit the murder, officials added.

At about 10:30 a.m., a masked MS-13 member entered the deli, approached Alvarado- Bonilla from behind, and shot him multiple times, killing him, prosecutors said. One of the bullets pierced through Alvarado-Bonilla’s head and struck the chest of a female employee of the deli, who was standing directly in front of him; the deli employee survived the gunshot wound, officials said.

Sept. 26, 2017 Attempted Murder of John Doe #3 in Federal Prison in Brooklyn

In the summer of 2017, while Portillo was in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, MS-13 members were regularly having altercations with members of the Young Gunnaz, or YGz, a rival gang, prosecutors said. On Sept. 26, 2017, Portillo encountered an individual (identified as John Doe #3), a YGz member, on his unit and tried to kill him by using a shank to stab him in the neck, and by beating him with metal locks tied to a
braided bedsheet; John Doe #3 survived the attack, officials said.

May 30, 2019 Attempted Murder of John Doe #4 in Federal Prison in Brooklyn

On May 30, 2019, while Portillo was in federal custody at the MDC in Brooklyn, he encountered an individual (identified as John Doe #4), a member of the Bloods street gang — a rival of the MS-13 — in his unit’s common area. Portillo tried to kill him by stabbing him with a shank, prosecutors said; John Doe #4 survived the attack.

Guilty Plea

The guilty plea proceeding was held before United States District Judge Gary R. Brown, Peace said.

“Today, the defendant pleaded guilty to participating in four extremely brutal murders, including two teenage girls slaughtered while walking home, that have left permanent scars in the Brentwood community which for too long has suffered acts of violence and destruction carried out by the MS-13 with machetes, knives, guns and fire,” Peace said. “I am confident that justice for the victims will be delivered when Portillo is sentenced for his savage crimes. This office will not rest until all MS-13 gang members are held to account for their utter lack of respect for human life and the rule of law.”

When sentenced, Portillo faces up to life in prison on the racketeering charge and a 10-year, mandatory minimum sentence on the firearms charge, prosecutors said.

Since 2010, the United States Attorney Eastern District of New York has obtained indictments charging MS-13 members with carrying out more than 65 murders in the Eastern District of New York, resulting in the convictions of dozens of MS-13 leaders and members in connection with those murders.

The brutal murders brought then-President Donald Trump twice to Long Island, vowing to fight back against deadly street gangs. Trump said, of the deadly street gang he called "animals," that its presence on Long Island and across the country is "a menace."

Trump said he was "moved" to be joined by the parents of Mickens and Cuevas, who suffered "unthinkable heartbreak at the hands of" MS-13 gang members who killed their daughters.

At that 2018 immigration forumthat Trump attended, the parents of the murdered teens gave heartrending testimony. "We have to go through this every day. It's an ongoing struggle," said Robert Mickens, describing what it's like to not find his daughter in her room, ready to wake up for school. "We've missed two birthdays. This would have been her year to graduate."

He added, "It's one thing for children to have a little fist fight and walk away but to murder another student, a fellow classmate, you're not an ordinary human. These children really need to stop hurting each other because if these children are our future, we won’t have a future. No parents should have to bury a child."