ISLIP CENTRAL, N.Y. In a federal racketeering case involving seven murders, including the 2016 slaying of two high school girls that brought the vicious Central American street gang to the attention of the country, a man who assisted in leading an MS-13 clique in New York entered a guilty plea on Tuesday.
In front of his family and the families of some of the victims, Jairo Saenz, 28, entered a plea in federal court in Central Islip.
After his lawyer recounted his description of the killings in the Long Island suburbs, just east of New York City, he remarked in Spanish through a translator, “I did these things and I knew they were wrong.”
As part of the judge-approved plea agreement, Saenz, who is originally from El Salvador, faces 40 to 60 years in jail.
Before a particularly heinous crime on September 13, 2016, made headlines, prosecutors said he was the second-in-command of a gang clique called Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside that subtly harassed the hamlets of Brentwood and Central Islip for months.
After being pursued in a car by a gang of young men and teenage boys, Nisa Mickens, 15, and Kayla Cuevas, 16, lifetime friends and classmates at Brentwood High School, were slaughtered with a machete and a baseball bat when they were strolling through a peaceful area close to their homes.
FILE: In Brentwood, New York, on September 27, 2016, a tribute to best friends Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas was placed close to the location where their bodies were discovered. (File: Claudia Torrens/AP Photo)AP
In the months that followed, there were more murders. As he made many trips to Long Island, invited Cuevas’ mother to his 2018 State of the Union address, and later called for the death sentence for Saenz and other others detained in the deaths, President Donald Trump blamed the violence and gang expansion on lax immigration laws.
Alexi Saenz, the leader of the clique and Saenz’s brother, has already entered a guilty plea to similar charges and is scheduled to be sentenced later this month.
The brothers have acknowledged that in order to advance in the MS-13 hierarchy and improve their group’s reputation, they ordered or condoned the murders of competitors and others who disregarded or fought with the clique.
Outside of court, Saenz’s attorneys and family remained silent, although the parents of two of the victims expressed their wish that he had received a life sentence.
George Johnson, the father of Michael Johnson, 29, who was stabbed and bludgeoned to death in Brentwood in 2016, stated, “It was some justice, but not what I wanted.” At least he isn’t hurting people on the street.
Elizabeth Alvarado, Nisa’s mother, bemoaned the fact that her daughter passed away just one day before turning sixteen.
“She had so many dreams,” Alvarado said outside the courthouse, “so that really hurt.” Her career goal was to become a veterinarian. Like her father and me, she aspired to become a nurse. I’m simply missing out on a lot of stuff.
Javier Castillo, a 15-year-old who was allegedly befriended by gang members before being driven to a remote park and attacked with machetes, was one of the other victims in the case.
Five months after leaving home to play soccer, Oscar Acosta, 19, was found dead in a rural location close to some railroad tracks.
Older victims included Dewann Stacks, 34, who was ambushed and beaten to death while strolling down a Brentwood road, and Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla, 29, who was murdered by a shooter inside a Central Islip deli in early 2017.
In addition, Saenz entered a guilty plea on Tuesday to charges of involvement in three attempted murders, arson, drug trafficking, firearm violations, and a plot to assassinate Marcus Bohannon, who was killed by other members of MS-13 in 2016.
Saenz participated in several heinous acts of mindless gang violence, according to a statement from Acting U.S. Attorney Carolyn Pokorny. During their reign of terror, MS-13 gang members used pistols, machetes, bats, and fire to convert areas of Long Island into a war zone.
She continued, “I sincerely hope that today’s guilty plea will provide some measure of closure and comfort to the families of the defendant’s victims who are still grieving the loss of their loved ones.”
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