MS-13 gang member pleads guilty to homicide he committed at 16

José Omar Sorto Portillo, a member of Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13), pleaded guilty to the murder of Jasson Medrano-Molina on October 20. Sorto Portillo committed the crime in Long Island, New York when he was 16 years old. 

“By pleading guilty, the defendant admitted to shooting and killing the alleged rival gang member to boost his status within the MS-13,” said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace in a statement.

The Eastern District and the Long Island Gang Task Force will continue to work to prevent brutal murders and eliminate gang violence that endangers the community, added Peace. 

In 2019, Sorto Portillo and other MS-13 members targeted and planned to kill those they believed were rival gang members. That same year, on August 7, the defendant and two co-conspirators led Medrano-Molina and two others into a forest in Central Islip, a town in Long Island. 

Sorto Portillo fired several times at the 15-year old victim, who died immediately. The other two, who remain unidentified, were able to escape. 

Sorto Portillo, 18, was 16 at the time of the murder. Before pleading guilty, he agreed to be tried as an adult in the case, according to the U.S Attorney’s Office in New York. There was no announcement of when Sorto Portillo will be sentenced. 

“This is the latest in a series of federal prosecutions of MS-13 members by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York,” read an official statement, which added that the transnational criminal organization based in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico has thousands of members in the U.S.

“With many members, MS-13 is the most violent criminal organization in Long Island,” continued the statement.

Long Island is one of the areas with the most MS-13 members in the U.S. In recent years, countless murders have been attributed to them. 

The group is known for recruiting young people, mostly of Latino origin, whose activities include rape, drug trafficking, extortion, arms smuggling, kidnapping, robbery, contract killings, among others.