CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — The chief of an MS-13 clique within the suburbs of New York Metropolis faces sentencing Wednesday in a federal racketeering case involving eight murders, together with the 2016 killings of two highschool women that centered the nation’s consideration on the violent Central American avenue gang.
Alexi Saenz pleaded guilty final yr for his function in ordering and approving the killings in addition to different crimes throughout a rash of bloody violence that prompted President Donald Trump to make a number of visits to Lengthy Island and name for the death penalty for Saenz and different gang members throughout his first time period within the White Home.
Saenz’s legal professionals are searching for a sentence of 45 years behind bars, however prosecutors need the choose to impose the utmost sentence of 70 years.
Prosecutors, who beforehand withdrew their intent to hunt the dying penalty, say Saenz deserves to stay out his days in jail for his “mindless” and “sadistic” crimes.
“The eight victims who misplaced their lives did nothing to deserve what the MS-13 did to them,” they wrote in authorized filings forward of Wednesday’s listening to. “The defendant and the others killed them in service of the gang with out regret or any regard for them as human beings.”
However Saenz’s legal professionals have argued for leniency, saying in their very own authorized filings that the now-30-year-old is remorseful and “on a journey of redemption” whereas incarcerated.
“With the passage of time and far reflection, it’s onerous for Mr. Saenz to reconcile the particular person he’s right this moment with the particular person he was when he dedicated the crimes,” their sentencing memo reads. “He’s profoundly sorry, and though he is aware of the households might not settle for his apology, it’s honest, and he accepts full duty for his participation in these crimes.”
Saenz’s legal professionals additionally say he suffers from mental disabilities and lasting trauma from an abusive father and tough upbringing in El Salvador. They are saying Saenz was recruited and unwittingly “groomed” into MS-13 as a result of he was an “simply influenced” and “gullible” highschool pupil on Lengthy Island.
Prosecutors, nevertheless, counter that Saenz has remained “firmly entrenched” in MS-13 whereas in a federal lockup in Brooklyn for the previous eight years.
They cited images of him posing with different gang members behind bars and displaying gang indicators and gang paraphernalia. In addition they say Saenz has been disciplined for assaulting different inmates, refusing workers orders and possessing sharpened steel shanks, cellphones and different contraband.
“Certainly, the identical sample of violence and mayhem that has marked his life on the road has not waned with the passage of time,” prosecutors wrote.
Saenz, often known as “Blasty” and “Large Homie,” was the chief of an MS-13 clique working in Brentwood and Central Islip often called Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside.
He admitted final July that he’d approved the eight killings and three different tried killings of perceived rivals and others that had disrespected or feuded with the clique.
Saenz additionally admitted to arson, firearms offenses and drug trafficking — the proceeds of which went towards shopping for firearms, extra medication and offering contributions to the broader MS-13 gang.
Among the many killings Saenz oversaw had been the deaths of Kayla Cuevas, 16, and Nisa Mickens, 15, lifelong mates and classmates at Brentwood Excessive Faculty who had been slain with a machete and a baseball bat.
Different victims included Javier Castillo, 15, of Central Islip, who was befriended by gang members solely to be lower down with a machete in an remoted marsh.
One other sufferer, Oscar Acosta, 19, was discovered useless in a wooded space close to railroad tracks almost 5 months after he left his Brentwood house to play soccer.
MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, is a transnational felony group believed to have been based as a neighborhood avenue gang in Los Angeles within the mid-Nineteen Eighties by folks fleeing civil battle in El Salvador.
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Comply with Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo
