CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — A Long Island woman has been convicted on all counts for luring four young men to their deaths in a Central Islip park at the hands of more than a dozen members of the MS-13 street gang.
Leniz Escobar, 22, known as "La Diablita," the Little Devil, was found guilty on Monday of racketeering, murder and obstruction of justice charges.
She now faces life in prison.
Prosecutors said Escobar helped orchestrate the 2017 massacre as a teenage associate of the gang before falsely claiming to be a victim in the ambush.
"With today's verdict, Escobar has been held responsible for the crucial role that she willingly played in orchestrating one of the most vicious and senseless mass murders in the district in memory," said United States Attorney Breon Peace.
He added, "The defendant showed utter disregard for human life by leading the victims into a killing field, to their slaughter, to enhance her stature with her fellow cold-blooded murderers within the MS-13 gang. It is my hope that Escobar's conviction will bring some measure of closure to the relatives of the victims and serve as a warning to other gang members that this Office, together with our law enforcement partners, will not rest until everyone responsible for these murders is held accountable and the MS-13 no longer poses a danger to our district.
MS-13 had been seeking to settle a score, prosecutors alleged, and believed the young victims to be members of the rival 18th Street Gang. The victims' families have denied that any of the slain men were in a gang.
Prosecutors allege that Escobar, who was 17 at the time, was seeking to curry favor with MS-13 and alerted its members to the victims' location in a wooden area. Under MS-13 rules, the killings had been "pre-authorized" by gang leadership, prosecutors said, and contributors to the carnage stood to gain membership or ascend the organization's ranks.
One of the victims who survived the rampage testified during the trial that Escobar was responsible for picking the spot in the woods and showed the boys how to get there.
MS-13, also known as La Mara Salvatrucha, recruits young teenagers from El Salvador and Honduras, though many gang members were born in the U.S. The gang has been blamed for dozens of killings since January 2016 across a wide swath of Long Island.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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