Survivor describes deadly MS-13 ambush after LI woman allegedly lured teens
The sole survivor of a deadly Long Island massacre by the notorious MS-13 gang described in court Monday how he ran for his life as one of the machete-wielding thugs shouted, “Hack him!”
Elmer Alexander Arteaga Ruiz, 22, delivered his chilling testimony as he came face to face with Leniz Escobar — the steely-eyed defendant dubbed the “Little Devil” — for the first time since she allegedly lured his four pals to their deaths in 2017.
A mugshot of Escobar, a k a “Diablita” in Spanish, was released Monday and shows her giving the camera a cold, dead stare while smirking.
Ruiz, asked on the stand about Escobar’s “Little Devil” Snapchat handle, said, “It fit her well.”
The witness testified in federal court in Central Islip that Escobar, 22, lured him and the other young men to smoke marijuana at a local park — but they were soon ambushed by MS-13 gangsters.
“They came through a hole in the fence,” he said of the group’s attackers. “There were eight or nine. They covered their faces with sweaters. They came and formed a semi-circle. They told us get down on our knees.
“They said, ‘Don’t move. Whoever moves, dies,’ ” he recalled. “I ran because the first words they said was that we were going to die, they were going to kill us, and they had weapons.”
Ruiz’s four buddies tried to flee, too. But they couldn’t get away fast enough and were butchered at the scene.
Federal prosecutors said during opening statements that the victims were “just high school kids” who were “trying to look tough” by flashing gang signs on social media — but that MS-13 members took the postings as a sign of “disrespect.”
Ruiz said he was just trying to pick up girls when he posted the photos of him and his friends, “not thinking of the consequences.
“I was going through a season where I thought this made me look good with women because even though it sounds stupid, there are women who like men like that,” said the witness, who was also identified as “Alex” by prosecutors in court.
“Because I had seen women who liked someone who looked like they were from the streets,” he said. “They have stupid minds like I had at the time.”
But Escobar allegedly tipped off the vicious gang to the victims’ photos and lured the young men to the park that day in a bid to curry favor with the killers, said Assistant US Attorney Megan Farrell in her opening statements.
“As they were killed, [the victims] wailed in pain and filled the park with their terrified screams,” the prosecutor said.
“Alex was not in the gang,” Farrell said. “He was not in MS-13, but he did post pictures of him and his friends holding up the signs and posing like members of MS-13.
“They were just high school kids,” she said. “They were trying to look tough and get attention. The members of MS-13 saw these pictures on social media and saw these pictures as a deep sign of disrespect, enough to justify death.
“The MS-13 crew came out from the darkness, screaming orders that they were all to get down on the ground,” she said. “The defendant pretended to be one of the victims and got down. The real victims took off running, but Alex was the only one fast enough to escape. The other four were hacked to death.”
Escobar is facing murder, racketeering and conspiracy charges in the April 11, 2017, attack at a Central Islip park, where the victims’ mangled bodies were later found.
Killed in the carnage were Justin Llivicura, 16, Michael Lopez, 20, Jorge Tigre, 18, and Jefferson Villalobos, 18, according to police.
In court, Escobar wore skintight black pants, a black shirt and a white-and-black jacket with a herringbone pattern.
“Big day,” she was overheard telling her lawyers at one point.
Farrell said Escobar “bragged about her important role in the murders” the next day and told her boyfriend one victim escaped.
“The day after the murders, she told her boyfriend that ‘four took the train and saw the light. One got away,’ ” Farrell said.
Escobar told her boyfriend “she did it to be happy, so that she could be happy,” the prosecutor said.
Farrell said Escobar lied to police and tried to destroy evidence by hurling her mobile phone out of a moving car when police were tailing her.
Alex, who showed up at the local police station with distraught relatives of the victims to report them missing, later led authorities to the bloody scene.
“[The victims] were dragged,” Nassau County Detective Donald Britton testified Monday. “Their shirts had been pulled up around their necks. They were lying on top of each other. There was a lot of blood. Yes, they were deceased.”
Relatives of the victims wailed in court when a photo of the slay scene was shown.
Defense lawyer Keith White said during his opening statements that his client did not know the victims would be attacked.
“Leniz didn’t know many of the attackers or that these men would be killed,” White said.
He said Escobar’s companion, who allegedly helped lead the men to their deaths, as well as two of the accused attackers had cut deals with prosecutors to testify in exchange for more lenient sentences.
Speaking outside the courthouse, defense lawyer Jesse Siegel would only say, “Miss Escobar maintains her innocence.”
Escobar’s trial is expected to last three to four weeks.
