Northeast
MS-13 gang leader pleads guilty to eight brutal murders, including two teens honored by Trump in SOTU speech
A high-ranking MS-13 gang member pleaded guilty Wednesday to his involvement in eight brutal murders in New York, including the killings of two high school girls who were beaten with bats and hacked with a machete in 2016.
The slain high-school pals, Kayla Cuevas, 16, and Nisa Mickens, 15, were honored along with their parents by former President Trump in his 2018 State of the Union speech, during which he called for stricter border controls.
Alexi Saenz, 29, said little as he entered his guilty plea to racketeering charges in federal court in Central Islip on Long Island – a far cry from his court appearance in 2018, where he reportedly smiled and joked with two other suspects in front of the girls’ families.
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A high-ranking MS-13 gang member pleaded guilty Wednesday to his involvement in eight brutal murders in New York, including the horrific killings of two high school girls who were beaten with bats and hacked with a machete in 2016. (U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, left; police handout, top right; Win McNamee, Getty, bottom right.)
Saenz also admitted to his role in three other attempted murders and to arson, firearms offenses, and drug trafficking – the proceeds of which went toward buying firearms, more drugs and providing contributions to the wider MS-13 gang.
He faces 40 to 70 years in prison when he is sentenced, with prosecutors previously withdrawing their intent to seek the death penalty in the case.
The gruesome slew of murders in 2016 and 2017 shocked the Long Island community and underscored how deeply embedded the gang’s operations and murderous capabilities had become in the area.
Kayla’s father, Freddy Cuevas, said outside of court that he was disappointed that the death penalty had been taken off the table.
“He’s an animal. He’s inhumane,” Cuevas said of Saenz. “Hopefully, justice will be served soon, and we can put this all behind us, as far as the families are concerned.”
The two teenage girls were slaughtered in a residential neighborhood near an elementary school on Sept. 13, 2016 – the day before Mickens’ 16th birthday. Her body was found on a tree-lined street in Brentwood, and Cuevas’ beaten body turned up in the wooded backyard of a nearby home a day later.
The two teens had been lifelong friends. Their family and friends said they had been inseparable and shared an interest in basketball.
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MS-13 gang member Alexi Saenz is escorted by FBI agents in Central Islip, N.Y., after being taken into custody. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, File)
In the months leading up to the murders, Cuevas was involved in a series of disputes with members and associates of MS-13 – a violent gang started by Central American immigrants, mainly from El Salvador, in Los Angeles in the 1980s, but has since expanded with devastating results.
Saenz, also known as “Blasty” and “Big Homie,” was the leader of an MS-13 group operating in Brentwood and Central Islip known as Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside. Charges are still pending against his brother, Jairo Saenz, who prosecutors say was second in command in the local gang.
According to prosecutors, the disputes escalated when Cuevas and several friends were involved in an altercation with MS-13 members at Brentwood High School. After that incident, the MS-13 members vowed to seek revenge against Cueva and were granted permission to kill them by Saenz.
Several MS-13 members then chased down and attacked both Cuevas and Mickens, wielding baseball bats and a machete, and striking each of the girls numerous times in their heads and bodies, while Alexi Saenz’s car drove around watching for police.
After the murders, the group retreated to Saenz’s home in Central Islip, where they changed clothes and hid the weapons.
Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said that the gang has now been “decimated” in Long Island.
“To say that Alexi Saenz’s hands are drenched in blood does not begin to describe the multiple killings and extreme mayhem he personally directed and committed in the span of one year in Suffolk County,” Peace said.
The horrific slaying of the pair garnered national attention, and the girls’ and their parents were honored by former President Trump at his State of the Union address in 2018.
“These two precious girls were brutally murdered while walking together in their hometown,” Trump said while calling for tighter border controls. “Many of these gang members took advantage of glaring loopholes in our laws to enter our country as illegal, unaccompanied, alien minors and wound up in Kayla and Nisa’s high school.”
The Republican had called for the death penalty for Saenz and others arrested in the killings and blamed the violence and gang growth on lax immigration policies as he made several visits to Long Island.
As well as Cuevas and Mickens, Saenz admitted his role in the killing of six other people, including 15-year-old Javier Castillo, who was befriended by members of the gang, driven 30 miles away to Freeport, and then fatally attacked with a machete in an isolated marsh as he was believed to have been a member of the 18th Street gang, one of MS-13’s principal rivals. His buried body was discovered a year later in 2017.
Another victim, Oscar Acosta, 19, who was also thought to be an 18th Street gang member, was discovered dead in a wooded area near some railroad tracks, days after Cuevas and Mickens had died. He had disappeared nearly five months earlier after he left his Brentwood home to play soccer.
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Kayla Cuevas, 16, and her friend Nisa Mickens, 15, were killed by MS-13 members in Brentwood, N.Y., in September 2016. (AP)
Older victims included Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla, 29, who was killed by a gunman inside a Central Islip deli in early 2017; Dewann Stacks, 34, who was ambushed and beaten to death as he walked along a road in Brentwood near a wooded area that was sometimes used as a gang meeting spot; Marcus Bohannon, 27, who was shot in 2016; and Michael Johnson, who was bludgeoned and stabbed to death in Brentwood in 2016. Saenz’s crew suspected that all of the victims were part of rival gangs.
In the wake of her daughter’s death, Cuevas’ mother became an anti-gang activist after her daughter’s death, but she was tragically killed in 2018 after she was fatally struck by a car during a dispute over a memorial marking the second anniversary of her daughter’s death. The driver, Annmarie Drago, pleaded guilty in 2024 to negligent homicide.
Since 2010, indictments charging MS-13 members with carrying out more than 70 murders in the Eastern District of New York have been made, resulting in the convictions of dozens of MS-13 leaders and members in connection with those murders, prosecutors said.
Fox News’ Benjamin Brown and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Northeast
Rhode Island teacher accused of sexting, kissing high school boy
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A married high school physical education teacher has been indicted on two counts of third-degree sexual assault after being accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a male student.
Alisha Crins is accused of exchanging sexually suggestive messages and engaging in sexual contact with the student while he was enrolled at Ponaganset High School in Rhode Island as a 17-year-old, according to an affidavit cited by WPRI.
The investigation began after the former student filed a formal complaint with Rhode Island State Police in October, the documents obtained by WPRI show.
According to the affidavit, the student told investigators Crins began texting him while he was a sophomore after allegedly finding his cellphone number online.
A sign marks the main entrance to Ponaganset High School in Rhode Island. (Google Maps)
He said she initially asked him to do work for her while she was on vacation, but the two continued communicating through text messages and social media after that plan fell through.
The student alleged the relationship escalated during his junior year. He told investigators Crins frequently complimented his appearance and once asked to wear his jersey during a school pep rally.
He further alleged Crins invited him to meet near her Cranston home, where they kissed inside his vehicle. During a later encounter, she allegedly climbed into the back seat and engaged in sexual contact, according to the affidavit. The student denied having sexual intercourse with her.
The alleged assaults took place between April 1, 2024, and June 30, 2024, according to WJAR.
HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL COACH CHARGED WITH RAPING FOSTER DAUGHTER, SERVING VICTIM TEQUILA SHOTS: REPORT
A Rhode Island State Police cruiser parked near a waterfront with boats visible in the background. (Rhode Island State Police Facebook)
When questioned by investigators, Crins denied “getting physical” beyond a single kiss but admitted to flirting and exchanging text messages that contained “sexual innuendos,” the affidavit states.
She also acknowledged sending photos and videos and told investigators the two discussed plans to have sex once he turned 18, though she said they never acted on those plans.
The Foster-Glocester Regional School District said Crins resigned from her role at the school Oct. 1, 2025, according to WJAR.
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File image of a woman texting. According to an affidavit, the student told investigators Crins began texting him while he was a sophomore after allegedly finding his cellphone number online. (iStock)
In a statement obtained by the outlet, the district said it is cooperating with authorities and referred further inquiries to state police.
Fox News Digital has reached out to state police for comment.
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Boston, MA
When did Southie get richy-rich? – The Boston Globe
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Born and raised in Southie, Heather Foley has seen her neighborhood morph over the past three decades of scrubbing, renovation, and new construction for higher-income new arrivals.
But even Foley was surprised to discover that her South Boston, where kids once went to the corner to buy milk and cigarettes for parents, has emerged with the city’s second-highest average income, even ahead of Charlestown and Beacon Hill.
Her first thought?: “I gotta start being nicer to my neighbors if that’s the kind of money they’re making.”
What’s a household?
Decades ago, when “Good Will Hunting” was filmed in the neighborhood and Southie was known as a working-class area, there were more kids around and maybe just a single breadwinner in some homes.
Since then, Southie saw more two-earner households, fewer kids, and spiffier rental units where three or four roommates could contribute to a “household.” The changes, along with spillover from the adjacent, pricier Seaport, or South Boston waterfront, are factors in Census data showing more than 40 percent of Southie households earn more than $200,000 a year.
Staying put
Foley, 46, a photo shoot producer, considers herself lucky. She didn’t move out to the South Shore like many neighborhood longtimers. She’s living in a family home on a block with residents — oldtimers and newer arrivals — who aren’t flipping properties for big bucks.
Another blessing, particularly valuable this winter? She has a driveway.
As a kid, she went to church and school at Gate of Heaven, St. Brigid, and St. Peter, and jokes that she’s “so sad I didn’t buy a three-decker with my First Communion money, because I probably could have.”
Waves of gentrification
She remembers the earlier waves of newcomers, when glassy sports bars like Stats Bar & Grille muscled in among longtime restaurants like Amrheins.
But now, even the popular Stats is moving out at the end of the month. The property owner is developing a five-story, mixed-use residential building at the site.
A small silver lining
Foley notes that some of the onetime “newcomers” have been here for three decades — and in some ways, have stabilized the place. Many have raised kids, who, like her son, may return to the neighborhood as young adults (albeit splitting a rented apartment with friends). Stats, the sports bar, says it will also return to the neighborhood’s thriving food scene.
“We have a lot of great restaurants now,” Foley says, “and everyone cleans up after their dog.”
Read: These maps show Boston’s wealthiest and most populous neighborhoods — plus other key trends.
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Patriots, strippers, and hookahs: A downtown restaurant’s liquor license is in jeopardy after it allegedly hosted Patriots players and guests after their AFC Championship in January. A decision is expected today.
‘Culture of secrecy’: In a scathing report, R.I. authorities accused the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence of decades of “inaction, concealment, and revictimization” in complaints of clergy sexual abuse of hundreds of children.
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🩰 A ‘Black Swan’ premiere: That’s among 30 sparkling arts events happening this spring around New England. Plus, why are more artists being banned from America?
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⚽ Will $7.8 million stop the World Cup from coming here? Can Foxborough’s insistence on up-front security payments force the world’s soccer governing body to send matches somewhere else this summer?
♯ Teenage dreams: The future rock stars were teenagers when they wrote songs, influenced by David Bowie and Stevie Wonder, about a fictional nightclub. A half-century later, Squeeze has reworked and is releasing those songs.
💻 Death by chatbot? A new lawsuit alleges Google’s chatbot sent a man on missions to find an android body it could inhabit. When that failed, it set a suicide countdown clock for him. (WSJ)
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Thanks for reading Starting Point.
This newsletter was edited by Heather Ciras and produced by Ryan Orlecki.
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