MS-13 member pleads guilty to Long Island murders

A member of the MS-13 gang in New York pleaded guilty Tuesday to organized crime and other federal charges in a case involving seven murders, including those of two high school girls, that focused the nation’s attention on the violent Central American street gang.

Jairo Saenz, 28, entered his plea in federal court in Central Islip at a hearing attended by members of his family and some of the victims’ families.

At the hearing, Saenz admitted that he committed the crimes and that he knew they were wrong after his lawyer read his account of the murders on Long Island, just east of New York City.

Saenz, originally from El Salvador, will be sentenced on June 13 and faces 40 to 60 years in prison as part of the plea agreement approved by the judge.

The brothers have admitted that they ordered or approved the murders of rivals and others who disrespected or had conflicts with the cell, in order to rise in the group’s hierarchy and strengthen their reputation.

Saenz’s family and attorneys did not comment outside court, but parents of two of the victims said they wished he had been given a life sentence.

“It was some justice, but not what I wanted,” said George Johnson, father of Michael Johnson, 29, who was beaten and stabbed to death in Brentwood in 2016. “At least he’s not out on the street hurting no one else.”

Elizabeth Alvarado lamented that her daughter, Nisa Mickens, was just one day away from turning 16 when she suffered a similar fate in September 2016.

“That really hurt because she had a lot of dreams,” her mother said outside the court. “I wanted to be a veterinarian. She wanted to be a nurse like me and her father. “There are so many things I’m missing.”

Mickens and Kayla Cuevas, 16, had been lifelong friends and classmates at Brentwood High School when they were murdered with a machete and a baseball bat by a group of young men and teenagers who had followed them in a car.

Prosecutor Carolyn Pokorny said in a statement that Saenz participated in “multiple barbaric acts of senseless gang violence that had turned parts of Long Island into a war zone.” He asserted that members of the MS-13 gang “wielded guns, machetes, bats and fire” in their reign of terror.

“It is my sincere hope that today’s guilty plea provides some measure of comfort and closure to the families of the defendant’s victims who continue to mourn the death of their loved ones,” he added.

President Donald Trump, then in his first term, called for the death penalty for Saenz and others arrested in the murders and blamed the violence on lax immigration policies, while making several visits to Long Island.

Other victims in the case included Javier Castillo, a 15-year-old boy whom gang members befriended before taking him to a secluded park and attacking him with machetes.

Another victim, Oscar Acosta, 19, was found dead in a wooded area near some railroad tracks five months after leaving home to play soccer.

The older victims included Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla, 29, who was killed by a gunman inside a Central Islip deli in early 2017, and Dewann Stacks, 34, who was ambushed and beaten to death while walking along a road in Brentwood.

Saenz also pleaded guilty Tuesday to his role in three attempted murders; arson; narcotics traffic; firearms offences; and a conspiracy to kill Marcus Bohannon, who was murdered by other MS-13 members in 2016.

Prosecutors have said he was second in command in a cell of the gang operating in Brentwood and Central Islip known as Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside. His brother, Alexi Saenz, the cell’s leader, previously pleaded guilty to similar charges and will be sentenced in the coming days.

Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channels YouTube, WhatsApp and to newsletter. Turn on notifications and follow us on Facebook, x and instagram.