CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — A leader of a New York gang called MS-13 pleaded guilty Wednesday to racketeering in eight murder cases, including the 2016 slashing and bludgeoning deaths of two high school girls as they walked through a leafy Long Island suburb.
Alexi Saenz, 29, said little during his arraignment in federal court in Central Islip. His lawyer read a statement in which he acknowledged ordering or approving the killings of people he considered rivals or who despised or antagonized members of his faction.
Among the victims were Kayla Cuevas (16) and Nisa MickensA 15-year-old male, a lifelong friend and classmate from Brentwood High School, was murdered with a machete and a baseball bat by a group of young men and teenage boys who had been tailing them in a car.
The deaths of the high school students have focused national attention on MS-13 gang violence under President Donald Trump’s administration.
The Republican Party He called for the death penalty. Cuevas has defended Saenz and others arrested on murder charges, blaming lax immigration policies for the rise in violence and gangs during several visits to Long Island. Cuevas’ mother, Evelyn Rodriguez, was a guest of President Trump’s 2018 State of the Union address.
The girls’ deaths also raised questions about whether Long Island police were being aggressive enough in addressing a growing gang threat within area high schools at the time.
For several months in 2016, Hispanic children and young men Quietly Disappeared in BrentwoodAfter Kayla and Nisa were killed, police in Brentwood, a working-class community 40 miles (64.37 kilometers) east of New York City, discovered the bodies of three other teenagers, ages 15, 18 and 19, who had gone missing several months earlier.
Saenz said he was not at the scene when Kayla and Nisa were killed but had discussed the attack with other gang members by phone beforehand.
Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, who prosecuted the case, said Wednesday that Saenz has “blood on his hands.”
In his guilty plea, Saenz admitted to participating in six other murders and three attempted murders.
The victims included 15-year-old Javier Castillo of Central Islip, who was rescued by gang members and driven 30 miles (48 kilometers) to Freeport, where he was attacked with a machete and killed in a remote swamp. His body was discovered a year later in 2017.
The other victim, Oscar Acosta, 19, was found dead in a wooded area near the train tracks a few days after Kayla and Nisa were killed. He had gone missing about five months earlier after leaving his home in Brentwood to play soccer.
The elderly victims include Esteban Alvarado Bonilla, 29, who was shot and killed at a deli in Central Islip in early 2017; Dewan Stacks, 34, who was ambushed and beaten to death while walking along a road near a wooded area in Brentwood that is sometimes used as a gang meeting place; Marcus Bohannon, 27, who was shot in 2016; and Michael Johnson, who was bludgeoned and stabbed to death in Brentwood in 2016.
Prosecutors previously withdrew their intention to seek the death penalty in the case. If convicted, Saenz faces 40 to 70 years in prison.
Saenz’s lawyers and supporters declined to comment after the hearing.
Outside court, Kayla’s father, Freddy Cuevas, said he was disappointed the death penalty had been dropped.
“He’s an animal. It’s inhumane,” Freddy Cuevas said of Saenz. “As for the family, I hope they get justice quickly and can put all of this behind them.”
Nisa’s mother, Elizabeth Alvarado, expressed relief that she and the families of other victims will not have to go through the trauma of a trial.
“All I want is for my daughter to rest in peace,” she said tearfully, wearing a black shirt with her daughter’s name on the back. “The longer I’m out, the less she’ll rest in peace. In the end, it’ll all be over and she’ll be happy.”
In a crackdown after the murders, police and federal agents arrested dozens of suspected MS-13 members. Or Mara SalvatruchaAn international crime organization believed to have been founded in the mid-1980s as a neighborhood street gang in Los Angeles by people fleeing the civil war in El Salvador.
Kayla Cuevas’ mother, Rodriguez, became an anti-gang activist after her daughter’s death, but was murdered in 2018. She was hit and killed by a car during a dispute over a memorial to mark the second anniversary of her daughter’s death. The driver, Annemarie Drago, Plead guilty in 2024 for manslaughter.
Saenz, also known as “Blasti” and “Big Homie,” was a leader of MS-13 operating in Brentwood and Central Islip, also known as Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside, according to prosecutors. Saenz’s brother, Jairo Saenz, was a deputy leader of the local gang, prosecutors said.
Alexis Saenz also admitted to arson, firearms offenses and drug trafficking, using the proceeds to buy firearms and drugs, as well as to donate funds to the MS-13 gang as a whole.
His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 31.
George Johnson, the father of victim Michael Johnson, said in court he saw no remorse or emotion from Saenz.
“He should die out there,” Johnson said of Saenz, who has been in federal custody since his arrest in 2017. “It seemed like he just wanted this to be over.”
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