MS-13 member Oscar Hernandez Baires testifies about killing, dismembering, burying Oswaldo Gutierrez Medrano in Jericho

An MS-13 member testified on Tuesday he and others were following orders from two of the deadly gang’s national leaders when they hacked a member of the Sailors clique to death with machetes, beheaded and dismembered his body, and then buried his remains in February 2022.

The MS-13 leaders ordered the killing of Oswaldo Gutierrez Medrano, 20, in retaliation for the slayings of two gang members by a member of the Sailors clique in a federal prison in Texas, Oscar Hernandez Baires testified in the trial of the two national leaders in federal court in Brooklyn. The Texas killings, Baires said, violated the gang’s rules.

The killers buried Gutierrez Medrano’s remains in multiple graves in the Underhill Preserve in Jericho, not far from Jericho High School. Medrano’s remains were recovered by the FBI and Nassau police in April, officials said.

One of the MS-13 national leaders on trial, Edenilson Velasquez Larin,  of Thornton, Colorado — also known as "Agresor" and "Saturno" — is charged with murder in the aid of racketeering, drug charges, weapons charges and a slew of other crimes. Hugo Diaz Amaya, of Kansas City, Kansas, also known as "21” and "Splinter," was charged with murder in the aid of racketeering and other felonies.

Also on trial are Jose Arevalo Iraheta, of Queens, who prosecutors said participated in Medrano’s killing and is charged with murder in the aid of racketeering, racketeering, and other crimes; and Jose Espinoza Sanchez, charged with murder in the aid of racketeering and other offenses.

Since 2021, virtually all MS-13 cliques in the United States have been united under a single hierarchy known as the "U.S. Program." The U.S. Program is lead by "La Mesa," a group of senior leaders that includes Velasquez Larin and Diaz Amaya, and authorizes and directs murders in the United States, according to prosecutors.

Hernandez Baires also told the jury he participated in the fatal shooting of Eric Monge while he sat in his car outside his Queens home with his wife in September 2020. Hernandez Baires said Velasquez Larin provided weapons to shoot Monge, an MS-13 member who had beaten him up on an earlier occasion, because Monge had been disrespectful to other gang members and they believed he had cooperated with law enforcement.

Hernandez Baires told the jury he has pleaded guilty to his role in Gutierrez Medrano’s killing and other crimes and faces life in prison when he is sentenced.

Velasquez Larin gave specific instructions for how Gutierrez Medrano should be killed, Hernandez Baires testified in U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy’s court.

"Did he tell you how he wanted the Sailor to be killed?" prosecutor Jonathan Siegel asked Hernandez Baires.

"Yes," the witness replied.

"What did he tell you? Siegel continued.

"To hack him to death with machetes so that all the homeboys could be involved."

Hernandez Baires told the jury Gutierrez Medrano was lured to a wooded area in the Underhill Preserve under the false pretense that he would be receiving a beating, a necessary step for a promotion in the gang.

The killers planned on having Gutierrez Medrano call his leader — who was not aware of the alleged scheme — after the beating, and then kill him. Instead, Arevalo Iraheta struck the victim with a machete before the call was made. Another MS-13 member, Hernandez Baires testified, then cut the 20-year-old’s throat with a curved knife.

When Hernandez Baires told Velasquez Larin the killing did not go as planned, he told the jury, the MS-13 boss was nonchalant.

"But did you guys kill him?" he asked, according to Hernandez Baires. "And I said yes. And he said, ‘Well that’s what matters.’"

MS-13 became notorious on Long Island because of the dozens of high-profile killings ordered or sanctioned by leaders. Many of those murders were committed with machetes, baseball bats and axes. MS-13 members killed Brentwood High School students Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas in 2016, shocking murders that focused national attention on Long Island’s gang violence.