Jurors deliberating in case against Kayla Alvarenga, of Bay Shore, charged with ordering killing of man in front of her house

The alleged leader of a Bay Shore street gang is a "master manipulator" who ordered her followers to kill a Central Islip man who parked outside her home to sleep after having too much to drink, a Suffolk County prosecutor said during closing arguments as the woman’s murder trial neared its conclusion on Monday in Riverhead.

Kayla Alvarenga, 23, of Bay Shore, offered young men from broken homes a place to smoke weed, chase girls and handle weapons free of adult supervision, Assistant District Attorney Sheetal Shetty told the jury during her 105-minute summation. She also demanded total loyalty from the gang that formed at her home, keeping kids yearning for family in line with threats and beatings. When Alvarenga ordered her followers to beat and kill Linver Ortiz Ponce, members of her gang — "Family Over Everything, Everybody Killed" — jumped into action.

"She is the commander," Shetty said, turning from the jury to point at Alvarenga. "She ordered this death."

Alvarenga is charged with murder, kidnapping and robbery for the 2022 carjacking and slaying of the 29-year-old Ortiz Ponce. Suffolk prosecutors rested their case on Friday after three weeks of testimony.

Alvarenga’s defense attorney, Jonathan Manley, of Hauppauge, did not call any witnesses.

The jury began its deliberations on Monday afternoon, shortly after acting State Supreme Court Justice Anthony Senft gave jurors their instructions.

Manley rejected the prosecution’s contention that Alvarenga was a puppet master who controlled the young men who drove a struggling Ortiz Ponce to a church parking lot and fatally shot him.

"This was not a cult," Manley said. "She is not Charles Manson. These men were not brainwashed."

The government’s witnesses included several "FOEEBK" co-defendants who have cooperating agreements with Suffolk prosecutors and have admitted their roles in Ortiz Ponce’s death.

"Each and every one of them has a motive to lie," Manley said.

One witness, Christopher Perdomo, acknowledged that he fired four shots into Ortiz Ponce. Manley urged jurors to dismiss their testimonies, accusing them of pinning the blame on Alvarenga in return for lighter sentences.

"They make deals with the devils to blame her," Manley said of prosecutors.

Manly said it was not credible to believe Alvarenga, 20 at the time of the killing, could be the boss of a gang that included Perdomo, who was 22 at the time and allegedly had MS-13 ties.

Alvarenga, whose gang name was Savage, occasionally looked back at family members sitting in the gallery but seemed to follow both closing arguments closely. She was dressed businesslike in a brown turtleneck and a dark blazer, a sharp contrast to the photos Shetty showed the jury that pictured Alvarenga brandishing a weapon as she posed with her gang.

Ortiz Ponce had gone to a bar to meet a woman he was interested in the night before he was killed, Shetty said during her closing. He had begun work at 4 a.m., and was exhausted and intoxicated when he left the bar. Ortiz Ponce drove away in his red Camaro but pulled over soon after, parking his car in front of Alvarenga’s house. He did not know Alvarenga, according to authorities, and he was a stranger to the gang.

Alvarenga’s followers, the prosecutor said, had spent the hours before the Ortiz Ponce killing stirring up trouble, driving around Suffolk County in a stolen BMW. First, they attempted to rob a drug dealer, but he never showed up. They later tried to steal a bag from a woman leaving Jake’s 58 Casino Hotel in Islandia, but she fought them off.

Alvarenga, nervous after spotting Ortiz Ponce outside her house, ordered the gang to return to Bay Shore. The defendants, each armed with a gun, pulled the groggy victim out of his car, Shetty said. The gang members kicked and punched Ortiz Ponce before driving off in his Camaro. Ortiz Pence fled the scene but Alvarenga, worried that he might identify gang members, ordered the gang to find him.

Alvarenga, driving the Camaro, spotted Ortiz Pence hiding in a nearby gas station. She turned off the lights of the car and waited for her followers to join her, Shetty said.

"She is watching him," the prosecutor said, showing surveillance video from the gas station, "like a predator in wait."

The gang members grabbed Ortiz Ponce and carried him to the BMW. Alvarenga led them to a church parking lot, where they pulled the victim out of the stolen vehicle and dropped him on the ground. Perdomo shot him four times, prosecutors said.

Although Perdomo fired the weapon, Shetty said, there was no doubt who was the brains behind the slaying.

"Make no mistake," she told the jury. "The defendant is running the show."