Lame duck Biden's DOJ gives brutal gang leader sweetheart plea deal in murder spree that killed 7
A notorious MS-13 gang leader who has admitted to planning, approving or taking part in at least seven murders in a federal racketeering case has avoided the death penalty and life in prison under the terms of a plea deal, authorities said this week.
Jairo Saenz, 28, is expected to receive a sentence of 40 to 60 years in federal prison after admitting to seven murders, multiple attempted murders, arson and other charges. Saenz's brother Alexi, another gang leader, previously pleaded guilty to similar charges in exchange for an expected sentence of 70 years behind bars.
The Saenz brothers were the leaders of a Suffolk County, New York, branch of MS-13 known as the Sailors, according to federal authorities. Their group was known for extreme brutality and violence, including the murder of two Brentwood High School girls with a machete and a baseball bat.
They attacked Kayla Cuevas, 16, and Nisa Mickens, 15, after members saw them walking in a neighborhood on Sept. 13, 2016. One of the girls had criticized the Sailors on Facebook. The gang killed them both and left their bodies to be found later.
Suffolk County police offered a $15,000 reward for information on the case. Federal prosecutors and Immigration and Customs Enforcement later became involved during a countrywide crackdown on MS-13 during President Trump's first term.
"It’s disgraceful. It’s an insult to the families," Suffolk County PBA President Lou Civello said of the plea deal Wednesday. "When you look at how barbaric these crimes were, murdering young kids with machetes, baseball bats, this is a clear case for the death penalty."
If Saenz serves the lower end of his sentencing range, that amounts to less than six years per murder, Civello told Fox News Digital.
"We're always grateful for the federal partnership and the resources they bring to the table, but at the same time, we need justice, that’s the important part," he said. "If it were true justice, this person should never see the light of day again. There should never be the opportunity to be out and back on our streets."
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"The Saenz brothers were no longer facing the possibility of the death penalty," a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office told Fox News Digital. "Our Office had been directed by the U.S. Attorney General in 2023 not to seek the penalty if they were convicted of the capital counts."
During a prior hearing, Saenz, his brother and another gang member joked and laughed in court as the girls' families were forced to watch from the gallery, Fox News Digital reported in 2018.
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"For far too long, MS-13 has been meting out their own version of the death penalty," then-U.S. Attorney Robert Capers, of the Eastern District of New York, said at the time of their arrests.
Now his predecessors have taken death off the table for the ringleader – and outgoing President Biden has also commuted the death sentences of 37 out of 40 federal death row inmates.
The gang would often drive around town looking for rivals to kill, according to federal prosecutors, sometimes in broad daylight and often by luring or ambushing their victims. But it was unclear how many of the people they attacked were actually gang affiliated.
In one incident, Saenz helped organize the murder of a man whose football jersey they took as a symbol for another gang. A masked gunman snuck up behind Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla, 29, as he stood in line at a deli on Jan. 30, 2017. They shot him in the back of the head, and the bullet exited and wounded a woman at the counter.
MS-13 violence got so bad on Long Island that during President Trump's first term, he visited in person to meet with the families of Cuevas, Mickens and other victims and enlisted then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in an effort to take the gang off the streets, which he said was using immigration "loopholes" to bring members into the U.S.
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During the meeting, he described MS-13 as "a ruthless gang that has violated our borders and transformed once peaceful neighborhoods into bloodstained killing fields."
The federal crackdown at the time led to thousands of deportations of its members. Saenz and his group were held to face justice, and former Attorney General Bill Barr's office would later announce it was seeking the death penalty.
Cuevas' mother, Evelyn Rodriguez, became a fierce anti-gang activist but died before she ever saw justice. She was run over near her daughter's memorial in 2018. The driver was convicted of criminally negligent homicide.
In 2023, then-U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace told the judge that Biden's Attorney General Merrick Garland had directed him to stop pursuing the death penalty. Peace stepped down Friday and has been succeeded by acting U.S. Attorney Carolyn Pokorny, who is expected to hold the post until Trump-nominated Joseph Nocella Jr. is confirmed.
Trump has vowed to not only end Biden's moratorium on capital punishment, but also to expand the list of crimes that can be punishable with execution to include child rape, human trafficking and the murder of U.S. citizens by illegal immigrants. Thirteen federal inmates were executed during Trump's first term, the most under any president in decades, but Biden halted executions after taking office in 2021.
Experts tell Fox News Digital the deal is light, but it could have taken shape for a number of reasons, such as if Saenz agreed to cooperate against his co-conspirators. Avoiding trial also uses fewer government resources and spares the victims' families from having to re-live the horror in court – or seeing the murderers continue to smirk and joke around.
Still, prosecutors could have sought a stiffer punishment without seeking execution.
"This is a very light sentence, considering the circumstances in the fact of this case," said David Gelman, a New Jersey-based defense attorney and former prosecutor.
"The only plea deal that I would’ve offered is life in prison without the possibility of parole. Here these gang members are going to get an opportunity to not only get out while they are still living, but they probably will get out earlier than their expected sentence."
Civello also noted the new threat of the Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua, but he said he is hopeful that new leadership will boost public safety across the country after Trump is inaugurated Monday.