MS-13 trial witness: The defendant 'showed no emotion'

An alleged MS-13 associate who prosecutors said lured four young men to their deaths at a Central Islip park in 2017 showed no emotion as she told a detective how she heard "the sound of pain and terror" as the victims were killed with knives and machetes, the detective testified Monday. 

Suffolk Homicide Det. Brendan O'Hara, testifying at the federal murder and racketeering trial of Leniz Escobar, 22, of Central Islip, said when he interviewed Escobar at the Third Precinct in Bay Shore two days after the April 11, 2017 killings, she described herself as a robbery victim. 

Escobar, according to the detective, said she was at the park with her friends from school, Keyli Gomez and Elmer Alexander Artiaga-Ruiz, who escaped the attack, and some of his friends, when strangers approached. Escobar, who prosecutors said was dubbed "la diablita” or “little devil,” told police they went through her pockets and took her purse before she and Gomez took off running. 

"She said she heard the sound of pain and terror," as she fled, said O'Hara, who added that despite the grim subject matter, she didn't appear rattled while recounting her version of events. 

"It was just a very monotonous recollection," he said. 

Killed in the attack were Jorge Tigre, 18; Michael Lopez, 20; Jefferson Villalobos, 18; and Justin Llivicura, 16. 

Prosecutors alleged that Escobar, the girlfriend of a high-ranking MS-13 member and a "devoted associate" of the gang, lured Artiaga-Ruiz and his friends to the park under the guise of smoking weed. But, according to prosecutors, she set them up to be killed by MS-13 in an attempt to curry favor with the gang. 

After spotting photos that Artiaga-Ruiz posted of himself on social media making the gang signs of MS-13 and their rival 18th Street, Escobar told MS-13 gang members and then helped plan the attack, prosecutors have said. 

Artiaga-Ruiz was not a gang member, but posted the photos to get attention from girls, he testified last week. He was able to escape the attack by running and jumping a fence, he testified. 

O'Hara, a 27-year Suffolk police veteran with eight years in the homicide squad, said Escobar was "cooperative" and "polite" and spoke at length during the interview inside a precinct conference room. But when asked to read and sign a written police report memorializing the interview, she refused. 

"She didn't give me a reason, but she wouldn't sign," said O'Hara, who said Escobar also refused police protection in the form of housing.

The only time that Escobar displayed "a little bit of emotion," according to O'Hara, was annoyance when she told the detective that an assailant at the park stole her black Michael Kors handbag, which contained $90 in cash. 

Jurors on Monday also saw a machete prosecutors said was used in the killings. Suffolk Police Det. Glenn Perigaut, of the department's Identification Section, testified that he photographed the machete, which was found in the rear yard of a Central Islip home, on May 12, 2017. A previous witness said the machete was discovered by police at the home of an alleged MS-13 gang member. 

Also Monday, a second cooperating witness testified to Escobar’s involvement in the killings. David Antonio Gaitan-Rivera, 23, an admitted MS-13 gang member who pleaded guilty to two gang murders, testified under a cooperation agreement with the government that the day after the killings, Escobar told him that “she and Keyli  had taken” the youths to the park where gang members killed them “by cutting them with sticks and machetes.”

Escobar said, according to Gaitan-Rivera, that she had brought five young men to the park, but only four were killed.

“He had gotten away,” said Gaitan-Rivera, a former member of the Brentwood Locos Salvatruchas or BLS clique of MS-13 who was not involved in the killings of the four youth.

Gaitan-Rivera said he was “like brothers” with Escobar’s boyfriend Jeffrey Amador, who prosecutors said is a high-ranking member of MS-13 who has been indicted on murder and racketeering charges. He said Escobar was trusted by gang leadership. When Amador went to jail, one of the clique’s cars, which Amador had driven, stayed with Escobar.

Prosecutors last week played recorded phone conversations between Escobar and Amador, whose gang name is “Cruel,” seemingly discussing the killings. Escobar told her boyfriend that “four individuals are no longer here,” and added that they are "seeing the light” and “never coming back.”

Gaitan-Rivera said he had not cooperated with federal authorities immediately following his July 2017 guilty plea, because he was worried for his and his family’s safety. After the former leader of his clique, Ronald Catalan, who went by “Extrano,” was arrested, his wife went to the home of Gaitan-Rivera’s mother and asked what jail her son was in and which lawyer was representing him.

Asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Scotti how he interpreted the visit, Gaitan-Rivera said:

“To me, it was a message … the gang could get there and hurt my family.”

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.