Alexi Saenz, a top member of the MS-13 gang, admitted to eight killings and three counts of racketeering in federal court in Central Islip, New York, on Wednesday.
Based on the plea deal, he could spend anywhere from 40 to 70 years in jail.
Two Long Island teens, Nisa Mickens (15) and Kayla Cuevas (16), were killed in September 2016. Saenz pleaded guilty to their deaths. Prosecutors said that members of the gang chased them down and hit them with baseball bats and a knife.
Prosecutors said the teens were killed because Cuevas and her friends got into a fight at Brentwood High School with people from MS-13 after a run of fights. For the fight, the gang members “vowed to seek revenge against Cuevas,” according to the prosecutors.
In 2017, Saenz and several other people thought to be members of the MS-13 gang were arrested for the deaths of the teens. His brother Jairo Saenz was also arrested at the time and is still being charged.
It’s not even close to describing how dirty Alexi Saenz’s hands are from all the killings and chaos he caused in Suffolk County over one year, according to a statement released Wednesday by Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “While those murders and violent crimes were intended to further the sordid mission of the MS-13, the defendant has failed miserably.”
The two Saenz brothers were first put on death row, but in 2023, Attorney General Merrick Garland said that would no longer be the case.
The killings of the two girls got a lot of attention across the country, and President Trump invited their parents to the 2018 State of the Union address.
“Here tonight are two fathers and two mothers: Evelyn Rodriguez, Freddy Cuevas, Elizabeth Alvarado, and Robert Mickens,” Trump said in his speech. “Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens, their two teenage daughters, were best friends on Long Island.” But they didn’t come home in September 2016, the night before Nisa’s 16th birthday. These two beautiful girls were killed brutally while walking in their hometown. Six tough MS-13 gang members have been charged with killing Kayla and Nisa.
Authorities say that Saenz is responsible for the deaths of six other people, all of whom MS-13 members thought were members of rival gangs.
prosecutors said Saenz was the mastermind behind these killings because he often told or gave permission for other gang members to carry out the attacks.
In addition, Saenz was charged with three attempted killings, arson, drug trafficking, and gun crimes.
Acting Commissioner of the Suffolk County Police Department Robert E. Waring said Saenz’s acts were “senseless and barbaric.”
“The murders of teenagers Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens shook our communities and reverberated around the nation,” said Waring. “I hope that this guilty plea will give the victims’ families some closure while also demonstrating our commitment to dismantling these criminal enterprises.”