‘La Diablita’ sentenced to 50 years for luring 4 youths to hacking deaths in Central Islip park

The MS-13 gang associate called “La Diablita” was sentenced to 50 years in jail Tuesday for tempting 4 boys to their hacking deaths at a Central Islip park in a harsh 2017 attack that shook the neighborhood.

U.S. Circuit Judge Joseph F. Bianco stated Leniz Escobar, now 24, was “among the most culpable” people accountable for the killings.

” She was a vital gamer at every phase of this dreadful criminal activity,” Bianco stated. “These 4 innocent boys not did anything incorrect.”

Bianco kept in mind that if Escobar, who was 17 years, 4 months old at the time of the killings, had actually been born 8 months previously she would have gone through a necessary life sentence.

Bianco stated Escobar’s age, abuse she suffered as a kid and work she has actually done to enhance herself while jailed for more than 7 years were consider sentencing her to less than the 65-year sentence looked for by district attorneys.

Still, Bianco stated he sees Escobar as “very hazardous.”

Escobar, 24, whose label equates to “little devil,” was condemned in 2022 of racketeering and murder in help of racketeering on the 5th anniversary of the April 11, 2017 slayings of Jorge Tigre, 18, of Bellport; Justin Llivicura, 16, of East Patchogue; Michael Lopez, 20, of Brentwood; and Lopez’s cousin Jefferson Villalobos, 18, of Pompano Beach, Florida.

District attorneys stated at trial that Escobar was not simply the “bait” that tempted teenagers to the park with the guarantee of smoking cigarettes cannabis, however likewise the “mastermind” who prepared the attack. The sweetheart of an MS-13 leader, she looked for to improve her stature with the gang, district attorneys have actually stated.

Escobar had, a week previously, found out of images of a 5th person, who left the attacks, “disrespecting the gang,” district attorneys stated.

As soon as in the woods, the young boys were fulfilled by more than a lots gang members who beat them with machetes, an ax and tree limbs, district attorneys stated.

” How is it possible that you understood what was going to take place and not did anything?” Lourdes Banegas, the mom of Lopez and auntie of Villalobos, asked an unflinching Escobar, who kept eye contact with the mom throughout her remarks.

Banegas stated the injury from the killings “damaged my household,” including that her 23-year-old child passed away of a cardiovascular disease on what would have been her bro’s 27th birthday in February.

Banegas and Tigre’s mom, Berta Ullaguari, informed Escobar they thought she was worthy of the capital punishment.

” Now you’re requesting for justice [for yourself]?” Ullaguari informed Escobar. “No, little lady, you’re going to rot.”

Relative of each victim spoke at the hearing, consisting of a more youthful bro of Tigre, who stated he lost his “coach” that day.

Escobar, who went into the courtroom smiling, her hands gripped in a gesture of prayer, stated she “harms” as she beings in her Riverhead prison cell thinking about the discomfort her actions triggered.

” All these years, all I can consider is their discomfort,” Escobar informed the judge when it was her turn to speak.

Escobar was supported in court by a cousin, an auntie and numerous individuals who have actually pursued her rehab while jailed.

Escobar’s lawyer, Jesse M. Siegel, stated she’s been referred to as a design detainee, who has actually worked to assist other prison prisoners as she thinks is “her calling.”

Siegel stated he and his customer were restricted in what they might state at sentencing as she prepares to appeal her conviction.

” The murders … were offensive and awful,” Siegel stated. “I make sure that everybody in this courtroom will feel that method.”

Assistant U.S. Lawyer Megan Farrell stated to call the murders dreadful is “an understatement.”

“[The four victims] were senselessly and extremely eliminated in the most dreadful method possible,” she stated.

At trial, witnesses stated Escobar existed for the attacks and disregarded pleas from Lopez to reveal grace. Following the killings, she eliminated a sweatshirt with Lopez’s blood on it and a cellular phone, Farrell stated. The district attorney likewise kept in mind a tape-recorded discussion from behind bars in which Escobar supposedly displayed an ongoing loyalty to the violent street gang almost 3 years after her arrest.

The 50-year sentence amounts to a sentence offered to Freiry Martinez, a teenager who took part in the whippings and later on pleaded guilty. Another teenage assailant, Josue Portillo, was sentenced to 55 years in jail after pleading guilty. Like those 2 codefendants, Escobar was a “real leader” in preparing the attacks, Farrell stated.

Alexi Saenz, a leader of the MS-13 inner circle that performed the slayings, has actually likewise confessed his regret and deals with an optimal sentence of 70 years under a conditional plea contract, Bianco stated.

In bying far his sentence, Bianco referred back to a remark the defense made about an image revealing Escobar finishing high school while jailed being “worth 1,000 words.”

” The image that sticks in my mind from trial is of the 4 bodies, butchered bodies, in the park,” the judge stated. “That’s the image in my mind. Those lives lost. They will not get their diplomas.”