MS-13 associate in New York, Leniz Escobar, 24, dubbed ‘Little Devil’ has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for luring four men into woods to be killed

She helped members of the MS-13 gang hack Michael Lopez, 20, Justin Llivicura, 16, Jorge Tigre, 18, and Jefferson Villalobos, 18 to death with machetes in a Long Island park 

Escobar, then 17, had ‘willingly and enthusiastically’ helped plan and execute the men on April 12, 2017

Escobar, nicknamed ‘Diabliita’ or ‘Little Devil’, was convicted in 2022 of one count of racketeering and four counts of murder in aid of racketeering

Over a dozen MS-13 gang members and associates were charged in connection with the attack, with Escobar being the fifth to be sentenced

Other’s await sentencing, that has so far has ranged from 29 to 55 years in prison

Leniz Escobar, [photo], 24, will serve 50 years in prison after ‘willingly and enthusiastically’ helping to plan and execute the April 2017 massacre of four teen males in Long Island, NY. She was was convicted in 2022 of racketeering and four counts of murder

MS-13 gangster’s moll, Leniz Escobar, has been sentenced to 50 years behind bars after she lured four men to an ambush where all were murdered deaths at a park in Long Island, New York, seven years ago. 
Escobar, nicknamed ‘La diabliita’ or ‘Little Devil’, was convicted in 2022 of one count of racketeering and four counts of murder in aid of racketeering.
Leniz Escobar, 24, had ‘willingly and enthusiastically’ helped plan and execute the April 12, 2017 massacre, US Judge Joseph Bianco said at sentencing on Tuesday. 
She was 17 when she helped members of the violent MS-13 gang hack Michael Lopez, 20, Justin Llivicura, 16, Jorge Tigre, 18, and Jefferson Villalobos, 18 to death with machetes at the Islip Recreational Center Park in Long Island, New York.
According to prosecutors, Escobar was ‘personally offended’ that one of the victims had worn items associated with the gang even though he wasn’t a member. 

Michael Lopez Banega [left] 20, and Jorge Tigre [right], 18, were were hacked to death in the Central Islip Recreational Center, New York, on April 12, 2017 after being lured into an MS-13 ambush by Leniz Escobar and her friend Keily Gómez  

Justin Llivicura [left], 16, and Jefferson Villalobos [right], 18, were also hacked to death with machetes by MS-13 members after being lured by Escobar and Gómez. Lone survivor Elmer Alexander Arteaga Ruiz testified they were lured by the two women

Assistant US Attorney Megan Farrell said it was Escobar who brought photos of the man using their hand sign to the attention of the gang. 
She then lured the four to a park in Central Islip under the false pretense of smoking marijuana where the gang members hacked the men to death with machetes. 
After their brutal murders, Escobar is said to have bragged to other members of the gang about her role and told those involved what evidence to destroy. 
Farrell commented: ‘She was one of the most culpable people. Without her, these murders would have not occurred.’ 
Speaking in court, Escobar claimed that she was reminded every day of the pain that she had caused. 
She said: ‘Every breath reminds me that they are not here and their families are in pain. If I could trade places with them and take away that pain, I would.’

Elmer Ruiz who survived the carnage by fleeing testified that he and his four friends were lured to the spot by Leniz Escobar [photo], and her friend Keily Gómez, on the pretext that they were going to a park to smoke marijuana

Despite her tears, parents and relatives of those who were murdered under her command were unmoved by her remarks. 
The mother of Jorge Tigre, Bertha Ullaguari said: ‘She does not deserve 50 or 60 years in prison. She deserves the death penalty.’
Tigre’s younger brother Jason said his brother was a mentor to him and was looking forward to graduating and going to college before he was murdered. 
The 17-year-old said: ‘Now I’m all alone and I’m trying to be strong for him. This never should have happened, but it did because she did it. He should still be here.’ 

The mutilated bodies of the victims were discovered on April 13, 2017, in the Central Islip Recreational Center a park in Long Island, NY. They were slaughtered with machetes, knives and tree limbs 

The area of the Central Islip Recreational Center where the four boys were killed on April 13, 2017. The fifth boy lured to the kill spot, out ran his assailants and lived to testify

Escobar’s lawyer had argued for a sentence of no more than 32 years behind bars, saying her crime was been before she was 18. 
Defense attorney Jesse Siegel also said she had endured violence, sexual abuse, exploitation and human trafficking. 
‘From the time of her birth until April 2017, she had lived a horrible, terrible life. The best years of her life have been the last seven years in custody’, he said.  
Prosecutors meanwhile had sought a much stiffer sentence of 65 years in prison, saying Escobar had maintained strong ties to MS-13 even after her arrest. 
They said that she had even helped in coordinating the beating of another female gang associate for violating their code. 
MS-13, also known as ‘La Mara Salvatrucha,’ recruits young teenagers from El Salvador and Honduras, though many gang members were born in the U.S. 

The casket of Justin Llivicura is carried from St. Joseph the Worker Church after the funeral service on April 19, 2017, in East Patchogue, New York, before his burial at a cemetery in Coram, Long Island

MS-13 had been seeking to settle a score, prosecutors allege, and believed the young victims – – to be members of the rival 18th Street Gang, but the victims’ families have denied that any of the slain men were in a gang. 
Prosecutors at trial said Escobar though 17 years old in April 2017, helped orchestrate the massacre as an associate of the notoriously ruthless gang before falsely claiming to be a victim in the ambush. 
Her boyfriend Jeffrey Amador was a high-ranking member of the street gang.
La diabliita’s attorneys argued that she did not know the victims would be in any way attacked and that she was not a member or associate of the gang.  
‘Not every girlfriend is an associate,’ defense attorney Jesse Siegel said. ‘Her boyfriend was a homeboy. She was there. She certainly didn’t prevent it from happening. The issue is if she knew something was going to happen.’

Prosecutors said that La diabliita Escobar, [photo], brought the victims to a park to smoke marijuana as the gangsters waited to kill them. Previously she coordinated the beating of another female gang associate for violating their code 

However, other prosecution witnesses included Escobar’s boyfriend himself. Amador testified that his then-17-year-old girlfriend told the gang “they were being overrun by ‘chivales’ [rivals] and they had no balls.”
Prosecutors also presented recorded phone calls Escobar had with her boyfriend, calling them “devastating” to her claim that she was innocent.
According to law enforcement The MS-13’s leadership traditionally has been based in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, but the organization also has thousands of members and an increasing number of leaders in the United States.
Under MS-13 rules, the killings had been ‘pre-authorized’ by gang leadership, prosecutors said, and contributors to the carnage stood to gain membership or ascend the organization’s ranks.
A day after the slaughter, Escobar ‘bragged about her important role in the murders’ and told her boyfriend that ‘she did it to be happy and was happy it happened.’ 
“She was telling her boyfriend exactly what happened,” Assistant US Attorney Paul Scotti told jurors.
“She told him she killed those four young men and she was happy about it. She was happy.”
Furthermore prosecutors said, Escobar destroyed evidence of her involvement in the murders by disposing of a sweatshirt stained with a victim’s blood and tossing her cell phone from a car while being followed by the police.

MS-13, aka ‘La Mara Salvatrucha,’ recruits young teens with El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexican heritage, including prospects born in the U.S. Over a dozen MS-13 members and associates were charged in the Islip Park massacre. Escobar is the fifth sentenced

Elmer Alexander Arteaga Ruiz was the sole survivor of the five boys who Escobar and Gomez lured to the Islip park. Ruiz had managed to make it out alive by out running his assailants. He testified against Escobar at trial. 
Recalling the moment his friends were hacked to death, Ruiz told the court: ‘They came through a hole in the fence.
‘There were eight or nine. They covered their faces with sweaters. They came and formed a semi-circle. 
‘They told us get down on our knees. They said, ‘Don’t move. Whoever moves, dies’. Ruiz said he ran and was chased by two others. 
Ruiz told the court that he and his friends were not gang members, just ‘high school kids’ who had made posts concerning MS-13 in a bid to impress women.
More than a dozen MS-13 gang members and associates were charged in connection with the attack, with Escobar being the fifth to be sentenced.
Josue Portillo was sentenced to 55 years in prison, Freiry Martinez was sentenced to 50 years, while Anderson Sanchez and Alexis Hernandez were sentenced to 32 and 29 years respectively.
The remaining defendants await sentencing