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

The MS-13 gang associate known as "La Diablita" was sentenced to 50 years in prison Tuesday for luring four young men to their hacking deaths at a Central Islip park in a brutal 2017 attack that shook the community.

U.S. Circuit Judge Joseph F. Bianco said Leniz Escobar, now 24, was "one of the most culpable" individuals responsible for the killings.

"She was a critical player at every stage of this horrific crime," Bianco said. "These four innocent young men did nothing wrong."

Bianco noted that if Escobar, who was 17 years, 4 months old at the time of the killings, had been born 8 months earlier she would have been subject to a mandatory life sentence.

Bianco said Escobar's age, abuse she suffered as a child and work she has done to improve herself while incarcerated for more than seven years were factors in sentencing her to less than the 65-year sentence sought by prosecutors.

Still, Bianco said he views Escobar as "extremely dangerous."

Escobar, 24, whose nickname translates to "little devil," was found guilty in 2022 of racketeering and murder in aid of racketeering on the fifth 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.

Prosecutors said at trial that Escobar was not just the "bait" that lured teens to the park with the promise of smoking marijuana, but also the "mastermind" who planned the attack. The girlfriend of an MS-13 leader, she sought to enhance her stature with the gang, prosecutors have said.

Escobar had, a week earlier, learned of photos of a fifth individual, who escaped the attacks, "disrespecting the gang," prosecutors said.

Once in the woods, the boys were met by more than a dozen gang members who beat them with machetes, an ax and tree limbs, prosecutors said.

"How is it possible that you knew what was going to happen and did nothing?" Lourdes Banegas, the mother of Lopez and aunt of Villalobos, asked an unflinching Escobar, who maintained eye contact with the mother throughout her comments.

  Banegas said the trauma from the killings "destroyed my family," adding that her 23-year-old daughter died of a heart attack on what would have been her brother's 27th birthday in February.

Banegas and Tigre’s mother, Berta Ullaguari, told Escobar they believed she deserved the death penalty.

"Now you're asking for justice [for yourself]?" Ullaguari told Escobar. "No, little girl, you're going to rot."

 Family members of each victim spoke at the hearing, including a younger brother of Tigre, who said he lost his "mentor" that day.  

Escobar, who entered the courtroom smiling, her hands clasped in a gesture of prayer, said she "hurts" as she sits in her Riverhead jail cell thinking of the pain her actions caused. 

"All these years, all I can think about is their pain," Escobar told the judge when it was her turn to speak.

 Escobar was supported in court by a cousin, an aunt and several people who have worked toward her rehabilitation while incarcerated.

Escobar’s attorney, Jesse M. Siegel, said she's been described as a model prisoner, who has worked to help other jail inmates as she believes is "her calling."  

Siegel said he and his client were limited in what they could say at sentencing as she plans to appeal her conviction.

"The murders ... were unspeakable and tragic," Siegel said. "I am sure that everyone in this courtroom will feel that way."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Farrell said to call the murders horrific is "an understatement."

"[The four victims] were senselessly and brutally killed in the most horrific way imaginable," she said.

 At trial, witnesses said Escobar was present for the attacks and ignored pleas from Lopez to show mercy. Following the killings, she got rid of a sweatshirt with Lopez’s blood on it and a cellphone, Farrell said. The prosecutor also noted a recorded conversation from behind bars in which Escobar allegedly exhibited a continued allegiance to the violent street gang nearly three years after her arrest.

The 50-year sentence is equal to a sentence given to Freiry Martinez, a teen who participated in the beatings and later pleaded guilty. Another teenage attacker, Josue Portillo, was sentenced to 55 years in prison after pleading guilty. Like those two codefendants, Escobar was a "true leader" in planning the attacks, Farrell said.

Alexi Saenz, a leader of the MS-13 clique that carried out the slayings, has also admitted his guilt and faces a maximum sentence of 70 years under a conditional plea agreement, Bianco said.  

In handing down his sentence, Bianco referred back to a comment the defense made about a picture showing Escobar graduating high school while incarcerated being "worth 1,000 words."

"The photo that sticks in my mind from trial is of the four bodies, slaughtered bodies, in the park," the judge said. "That's the photo in my mind. Those lives lost. They won't get their diplomas."

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.