A man who once served as a leader in an MS-13 clique in New York pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a federal racketeering case involving seven murders, including the 2016 slayings of two high school girls that drew national attention to the violent Central American gang.
Jairo Saenz, 28, entered his guilty plea in federal court in Central Islip, Long Island, during a hearing attended by his family and some of the victims’ relatives.
“I did these things and I knew they were wrong,” Saenz said in Spanish, speaking through a translator after his lawyer read his confession regarding the killings in the suburban areas of Brentwood and Central Islip.
Saenz, originally from El Salvador, faces a prison term of 40 to 60 years under the terms of the plea agreement approved by the judge.
A Wave of Violence
Prosecutors identified Saenz as the second-in-command of a gang clique called Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside. This group terrorized parts of Long Island for months before a particularly heinous crime on September 13, 2016, gained national attention.
On that day, Nisa Mickens, 15, and Kayla Cuevas, 16, lifelong friends and classmates at Brentwood High School, were attacked and killed with a machete and a baseball bat. They had been stalked by a group of young men and teenage boys riding in a car.
Additional killings followed in the months after. President Donald Trump spotlighted the gang violence and its alleged ties to immigration policies. He made several visits to Long Island, invited Cuevas’ mother to his 2018 State of the Union address, and called for the death penalty for Saenz and others charged in the murders.
Saenz’s older brother, Alexi Saenz, who led the clique, had previously pleaded guilty to similar charges and is scheduled to be sentenced later this month.
MS-13 Attack in New York
Seeking Power and Revenge
The Saenz brothers admitted to ordering or approving murders to settle feuds, punish disrespect, and eliminate rivals, all as part of advancing within MS-13’s hierarchy and bolstering their clique’s reputation.
Saenz’s family and attorneys declined to comment outside the courthouse, but the parents of two victims expressed frustration over the sentencing.
“It was some justice, but not what I wanted,” said George Johnson, the father of Michael Johnson, 29, who was bludgeoned and stabbed to death in Brentwood in 2016. “At least he’s not out in the street to hurt anybody else.”
Elizabeth Alvarado, the mother of Nisa Mickens, spoke of her heartbreak, noting that her daughter died just one day before her 16th birthday.
“That really hurt because she had so many dreams,” Alvarado said outside the courthouse. “She wanted to be a veterinarian. She wanted to be a nurse like me and her dad. There’s just so many things that I’m missing out on.”
The Victims
Other victims of the gang’s violence included 15-year-old Javier Castillo, whom gang members befriended before luring him to a park and attacking him with machetes, and 19-year-old Oscar Acosta, whose body was found near railroad tracks five months after he went missing on his way to play soccer.
Older victims included 29-year-old Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla, who was fatally shot in a Central Islip deli in 2017, and 34-year-old Dewann Stacks, who was ambushed and beaten to death while walking in Brentwood.
Saenz also pleaded guilty to participating in three attempted killings, arson, narcotics trafficking, firearms offenses, and a conspiracy to kill Marcus Bohannon, who was murdered by other MS-13 members in 2016.
A Reign of Terror
Acting U.S. Attorney Carolyn Pokorny condemned Saenz’s actions in a statement, describing his participation in “barbaric, and multiple acts of senseless gang violence that had turned parts of Long Island into a war zone” with MS-13 members “wielding guns, machetes, bats, and fire” during their campaign of terror.
“It is my sincere hope that today’s guilty plea brings some measure of solace and closure to the families of the defendant’s victims who continue to mourn the deaths of their loved ones,” Pokorny said.
