MS-13’s ‘Little Devil’ to stand NY trial in brutal 2017 slayings

The 4 victims of a MS-13 related quadruple murder in Central Islip Lengthy Island that occurred on April 13, 2017.
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A feminine MS-13 gang member often called “Little Satan” will face trial Monday on fees she helped lure 5 younger males into a savage 2017 ambush that left 4 of them useless.

Leniz Escobar, nicknamed “Diablita,” is charged with coaxing the unsuspecting victims — Michael Lopez, Justin Llivicura, Jorge Tigre and Jefferson Villalobos — right into a wooded space in Central Islip, the place they have been overwhelmed and hacked to demise by MS-13 gangsters.

Their mangled our bodies have been found close to a soccer area in a Central Islip park on April 12, 2017.

A fifth sufferer escaped the bloodbath.

In a December 2019 ruling, US Circuit Choose Joseph Bianco alleged Escobar “knowingly lured the unsuspecting victims to a prearranged location within the Central Islip woods the place they have been murdered with machetes, knives and tree limbs.”

The decide mentioned Escobar, who was 17 on the time, was suspected of “instigating the murders, together with one other juvenile feminine, by finding images of a few of the victims flashing MS-13 gang indicators on social media … after which displaying these images to MS-13 members.”

Federal prosecutors known as the assault “a horrific frenzy of violence” in court docket papers.

“Moreover, Escobar discarded the bloody clothes that she had been carrying on the night time of the murders,” the court docket submitting mentioned.

Police arrange a criminal offense scene at a park in Central Islip, Lengthy Island the place 4 mutilated our bodies of younger males have been discovered on April 13, 2017.

Spencer Platt/Getty Photos

They declare Escobar was an affiliate of MS-13 who was making an attempt to curry favor with the gang by luring the younger males to their deaths. It’s unclear whether or not the victims have been rival gang members or simply MS-13 wannabes.

4 different MS-13 members additionally accused of finishing up the deadly assault are awaiting trial, whereas two others have been sentenced to 50 and 55 years in jail.

One in all them, Jorge Portillo, who was simply 15 on the time of the killing spree, pleaded responsible to fees of homicide, racketeering and conspiracy in 2019.

The casket of Justin Llivicura — one in every of 4 younger males discovered slain in a suspected MS-13 gang killing, is carried from St. Joseph the Employee Church after Llivicura’s funeral Wednesday, April 19, 2017.

AP Picture/Frank Eltman, File

Escobar has pleaded not responsible to the federal fees. She will likely be tried as an grownup in federal court docket in Central Islip. Prosecutors mentioned the trial is predicted to take three to 4 weeks.

Her legal professional, Jesse Siegel, instructed the Related Press that “after nearly 5 years, Ms. Escobar is wanting ahead to having her day in court docket.”

MS-13, a notoriously vicious gang also referred to as La Mara Salvatrucha, was based by Central American immigrants in Los Angeles within the Nineteen Eighties. It has since grown into a worldwide felony enterprise — with a stronghold in Lengthy Island.

With Submit wires