Through her participation in the MS-13 gang, defendant Leniz Escobar took part in the murder of four people in a wooded area in Central Islip on April 11, 2017. A jury convicted defendant of one count of racketeering and of four counts of murder in aid of racketeering for luring the victims to a park where MS-13 members hacked them to death with machetes.

On Dec. 3, 2021, U.S District Judge Joseph Bianco of the Eastern District of New York granted the government's pre-trial motion in limine seeking an anonymous and partially sequestered jury. The judge found that Escobar and her MS-13 associates have a demonstrable history of obstructing justice, and of violent conduct including retribution that could cause reasonable jurors to fear for their safety. Instantly, defendant already showed willingness to interfere with the judicial process by conspiring to destroy evidence. Nor did defendant's relative lack of seniority foreclose MS-13 from attempting to interfere on her behalf, the judge found.

Escobar's "serious crimes" strongly favored an anonymous jury. In addition to using the employees' parking lot and rear entrance into the courthouse, the court provided the jury a separate area in which to eat lunch and daily court officer escort to and from the lobby to the jury room.

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