MS-13 gangbanger pleads guilty to 4 Long Island murders, including two teen girls

June 2024 · 4 minute read

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A bloodthirsty MS-13 gangbanger pleaded guilty Thursday in connection to four murders — including the slaughter of two teenage Long Island girls who were attacked with baseball bats while walking home from school and hacked to death with machetes.

Enrique Portillo, 26, admitted his role in the grisly 2016 slayings of Brentwood High School students Kayla Cuevas, 16, and Nisa Mickens, 15, as he copped to racketeering and firearms charges for their and two other murders.

“I am guilty,” Portillo said in a statement read out by his lawyer, David Stern, during his plea hearing in Central Islip federal court.

During the proceeding, federal prosecutors laid bare gruesome details tied to the four killings, including the fatal beating of the two teens, who were attacked on a residential street on the evening of September 13, 2016.

“The defendant and others chased and attacked them with baseball bats and machetes,” Assistant US Attorney Justina Geraci said.

“The defendant hit one of the girls so hard the bat actually broke.”

MS-13 gang member Enrique Portillo pleaded guilty in murdering four people on Long Island — including two teenage girls. U.S. Attorney's Office

Portillo, who was dressed in a yellow prison jumpsuit, also described the sick attack in detail, telling the court in his statement that he had been in a car with fellow members of the Long Island chapter of the notorious gang when they spotted the victims.

“I used a bat to hit one of the girls. I also hit the second girl,” the confessed killer said via his lawyer, adding that the teens had allegedly disrespected the gang.

“I’m aware that they died as a result of the attack,” his statement said.

Portillo killed Brentwood High School students Kayla Cuevas, 16, and Nisa Mickens, 15, in 2016.

When the girls’ remains were discovered, they were covered in lacerations and had sustained significant blunt force trauma to their heads and bodies, according to prosecutors.

Shortly after hearing the grim details, Cuevas’ father, Freddy, abruptly got to his feet and left the courtroom.

Portillo — who goes by “Oso” and “Turkey” — also pleaded guilty in connection to the murders of two men MS-13 members believed to be rival gang members, 34-year-old Dewann Stacks who was killed in October 2016 and Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla, 29, who was hacked to death in January 2017.

Kayla Cuevas’ parents Evelyn Rodriquez and Freddy Cuevas holding a photo of their late daughter. Ellis Kaplan

In addition to the four slayings, he copped to an arson and four attempted murder charges, including for trying to kill two inmates with shanks while he was holed up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Portillo begged prosecutors through his lawyer to make it known that he never cooperated with the feds — fearing retribution against himself in prison.

“He’s very concerned about being sent to a prison where they think that he did,” his attorney, Stern, said.

A memorial for the two slain girls in Brentwood, New York. AP Photo/Claudia Torrens, File

The murders and attempted murders Portillo confessed to were rolled into racketeering and firearms charges.

He faces up to life in prison on the racketeering charge and a 10-year, mandatory minimum sentence on the firearms charge.

“Today, the defendant pleaded guilty to participating in four extremely brutal murders, including two teenage girls slaughtered while walking home, that have left permanent scars in the Brentwood community which for too long has suffered acts of violence and destruction carried out by the MS-13 with machetes, knives, guns and fire,” US Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.

“I am confident that justice for the victims will be delivered when Portillo is sentenced for his savage crimes. This Office will not rest until all MS-13 gang members are held to account for their utter lack of respect for human life and the rule of law.”

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