Both sides rest in trial of woman accused of luring 4 to MS-13 park killings

Federal prosecutors and the defense rested their cases Monday in the trial of the accused MS-13 associate who allegedly lured five young men to a Central Islip park, where four of them were killed in a brutal MS-13 machete attack.

Thirteen witnesses testified for the prosecution during the trial of Leniz Escobar, 22, of Central Islip, who prosecutors said was known as "la diablita" or “the little devil,” and was a “devoted associate” of the gang who was dating a high-ranking member and wanted to gain respect by taking part in the murder-conspiracy. Prosecutors also alleged Escobar tossed her cellphone out of a moving vehicle as she was pursued by Suffolk County police detectives and disposed of a sweatshirt with one of the victim’s blood.

Escobar has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and racketeering in the April 11, 2017, killings of Jorge Tigre, 18; Michael Lopez, 20; Jefferson Villalobos, 18; and Justin Llivicura, 16.

The defense did not call any witnesses. A defense attorney for Escobar has said she didn’t know anyone would be killed at the park that night. Closing arguments are expected Wednesday.

Among the witnesses at trial was Keyli Gomez, who testified under a cooperation agreement and described how the then-high school classmates and close friends, coordinated the killings with MS-13 gang members. Prosecutors have said the two young women — Escobar was then 17 and Gomez was 16 — lured the boys to the park with the promise of smoking marijuana.

Before the murders, Escobar, according to Gomez, had seen photos of the lone survivor of the attack — Elmer Alexander Artiaga-Ruiz, 22, then of Ronkonkoma — making gang signs of MS-13 and their rival, the 18th Street gang, and showed it to gang members.

Artiaga-Ruiz, who testified about his escape from the park that night, said he wasn’t a gang member, but posted the photos in an attempt to get attention from girls.

Prosecutors also played a series of phone calls between Escobar and her alleged MS-13 boyfriend, in which she referenced the killings, according to prosecutors.

In a call the day after 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.”

Another witness, David Antonio Gaitan-Rivera, 23, an admitted MS-13 gang member who pleaded guilty to two separate gang murders, said that the day after the park 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.”

Gaitan-Rivera, a former member of the Brentwood Locos Salvatruchas or BLS clique of MS-13, testified under a cooperation agreement.

Suffolk Homicide Det. Brendan O’Hara testified that he interviewed Escobar, then thought to be a witness, after the killings and “she said she heard the sound of pain and terror," as she fled the killings, but provided a “monotonous recollection” with no emotion.

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.