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Leniz Escobar, MS-13 associate dubbed “La Diablita,” sentenced to 50 years in prison
NEW YORK – The woman convicted of luring five young men into a Long Island park where they were attacked by MS-13 gang members that killed four of them was sentenced to 50 years in prison Tuesday.
The brutal 2017 attack shocked Central Islip, and the nation.
Leniz Escobar, 24, also known as “La Diablita, or “Little Devil,” was convicted in April, 2022, in connection with the murders of Justin Llivicura, Michael Lopez, Jorge Tigre and Jefferson Villalobos. The victims were aged 16-20. She was sentenced Tuesday.
Escobar was accused of luring them into the park to smoke marijuana. Once they got there, gang members surrounded and attacked them with machetes, knives, an axe and clubs.
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One managed to run away. The other four were killed.
Prosecutors say they were attacked because MS-13 gangsters believed they were “members of a rival gang, at least two of whom had disrespected the MS-13 by posting photos on social media.”
Escobar bragged about the attack, prosecutors say
Prosecutors say that Escobar bragged to other MS-13 members about her role in the killings after the attack.
“The defendant demonstrated her allegiance to the MS-13 gang by luring four young men to their slaughter,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said. “It is my hope that the justice meted out today will provide some comfort to those who lost loved ones to this senseless gang violence.”
“Her subsequent bragging of her inhumane trap to ranked members exemplifies Escobar’s perverted prioritization of gang status over human life. May today’s sentencing provide some justice to the victims’ families,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge Dennehy said.
More than a dozen MS-13 gang members and associates have since been charged in connection with the attack. Escobar is the fifth to have been sentenced.
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Vice President Kamala Harris said she won’t ban fracking natural gas, telling KDKA-TV that her position hasn’t changed since she joined the Biden ticket in 2020.
As a senator back in 2019, Harris once said she would ban fracking, which is the method used to extract the natural gas the Pittsburgh region uses to heat homes and factories.
The Trump campaign insists that is still Harris’ view, so in her first television interview with a Pittsburgh station since announcing her candidacy for president, KDKA-TV’s Jon Delano repeated one campaign ad and asked her directly.
“The ad claims that if you are elected president you will ban fracking and cost Pennsylvania over 300,000 jobs. Have you changed your view on fracking, and if so, why?” Delano asked.
“So let me start by saying that that ad as you described it is absolutely a mischaracterization which I think is intended to make people afraid,” Harris replied.
Harris said her view today is the same as in 2020 when she joined the Biden ticket. Biden said repeatedly in that campaign that he would not ban fracking, a position repeated by Harris.
“I will not ban fracking. I did not as vice president. In fact, I cast the tie-breaking vote to open up more fracking leases,” Harris said. “And my perspective on this is grounded in a number of things, including that we don’t have to ban fracking to do the work that we can do to also invest in a clean energy economy.”
And the vice president took direct aim at campaign ads claiming otherwise, calling them intentionally misleading.
“I’m going to bring jobs back to rural communities. I’m going to make sure that we invest in those communities that have done the kind of work that you have in mind when you talk about Pittsburgh, when you talk about the greater aspect of Pennsylvania. And I’m going to keep doing that work,” she said.
And while she obviously had a different view five years ago, the vice president is adamant she will not ban fracking.
“That’s where I stand, period. As president of the United States, I will not ban fracking,” she said.
Despite her strong and clear words on the issue, it’s not likely to stop the Trump campaign from insisting her earlier views on fracking are her real ones, leaving it up to voters to decide who’s telling the truth.
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