Experts in Newark schoolyard slayings trial say MS-13 gang has a 'history of violence'

[Lucinda F. Boyd]

Experts in Newark schoolyard slayings trial say MS-13 gang has a 'history of violence'

By Star-Ledger Staff

May 17, 2010, 5:05AM

Robert Sciarrino/The Star-LedgerRodolfo Godinez, 26, right, talks with his attorney Roy Greenman during a break in the mornings testimony. Godinez is the first of six defendants to stand trial in the Aug. 4, 2007, Newark schoolyard triple killings of Iofemi Hightower, Dashon Harvey, Terrance Aeriel, and the attempted murder of Natasha Aeriel. Godinez's trial has brought attention to the violent nature of the MS-13 gang.
NEWARK -- The initiation ceremony for MS-13 gang recruits is short but painful, gang experts say, and involves having to withstand 13 seconds of getting pummeled by three members.

Rodolfo Godinez said he was "jumped in" at 13. By the time Godinez was charged with murder in the August 2007 killings of three people in a Newark schoolyard, he was 24 years old and a self-proclaimed recruiter for MS-13.

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• The Newark schoolyard killings

His trial in Superior Court in Newark, which resumes today has provided a rare view into the inner workings and motivation of the violent street gang with roots in El Salvador and branches throughout the United States, Europe, Canada and South and Central America.

Mara Salvatrucha, known as MS-13, was formed in the mid-1980s in Los Angeles, where many Salvadorans landed after fleeing their country’s civil war, said Hector Alicea, a New York State Police investigator and gang expert. MS-13 spread across the country, and now has a reported presence in 42 states, linking roughly 6,000 to 10,000 members, according to a 2008 FBI assessment.

The numbers are a fraction of the membership of other street gangs like the Bloods and Crips, law enforcement officials said. Still, the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement said MS-13 has "a presence across the United States ... and a history of violence," according to a report on the gang presented to Congress two years ago. To combat the problem, the FBI initiated the Mara Salvatrucha National Gang Task Force, which supports local, state, federal and international law enforcement operations and prosecutions.

Godinez, who came to the United States from Nicaragua when he was 5, told police in a taped interview after his arrest that he helped start the Newark clique. He said the killings at Mount Vernon School were a test for a new member to see if he "had heart," and were ordered by a New York faction. In that statement, Godinez denied any role in the violence, but he acknowledged being at the scene.

Five other young men, who authorities say all have ties to MS-13, are also charged in the Aug. 4, 2007, shootings that left three friends dead and one critically injured. Iofemi Hightower and Dashon Harvey, both 20, and Terrance Aeriel, 18, were shot and killed. Terrance’s sister, Natasha Aeriel, then 19, was also shot but survived. All were attending or planning to attend college.

The other five defendants will be tried separately. One is Godinez’s half-brother, another his cousin.

MS-13 first emerged in New Jersey on a 12-block stretch of West New York in the mid-1990s, said Sgt. Juan Colon, a street gang expert with the New Jersey State Police. Around that time, the symbols of the gang — machetes, distinctive tattoos and hand signs — also appeared.

The gang earned a reputation for violence, with one of its trademarks being machetes, part of the agrarian culture in El Salvador and a weapon of choice during its civil war, said Alicea, an MS-13 expert who testified last week at Godinez’s trial.

In the Newark schoolyard killings, prosecutors have said two of the victims were slashed with machetes. During his testimony, Alicea cited the machete attacks as one of several indicators that could point to the group. He also said the test for the new member, which Godinez had mentioned, matched the gang’s practice of committing crimes to maintain their status.

In terms of membership, MS-13’s numbers don’t approach that of the Crips, Bloods and Latin Kings, which dominate the gang rosters in Essex County, law enforcement officials said. Still, they have not been overlooked by authorities.

The number of towns reporting an MS-13 presence jumped 12 percent between 2004 and 2007, according to an FBI report. Gang members have generally clustered in towns along the Route 1 corridor near Trenton, though there is a large presence in Hudson and Atlantic counties, the report said. Apart from West New York and Plainfield, towns reported local MS-13 gangs had fewer than 50 members.

"The proliferation of Mara Salvatrucha and other Latin American street gangs in New Jersey and other parts of the country poses a serious threat," the State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation warned in 2004. "If this trend continues, the MS-13 gang could become one of the largest street gangs in the country."

Three years later, a State Police gang survey reported an MS-13 presence in roughly a quarter of New Jersey towns with a gang presence, making it the state’s fifth most prevalent gang.

"The membership is predominantly younger kids in school, most of whom tend to move on after awhile," Colon said. "It’s not as bad as it used to be, but you do have those kids who want to prove themselves."

In the Newark slayings, four of the six arrested were juveniles, the youngest was 15 years old. Their gang affiliation is yet unverified.

Unlike classic mafia groups that have clearly defined hierarchies, MS-13 members establish cliques that join in a loose confederation, making it difficult to prosecute, said Samuel Logan, author of "This is for the Mara Salvatrucha: Inside the MS-13, America’s Most Violent Gang."

Though independent, the cliques are loyal to each other and will provide financial assistance or a place to hide, Alicea said.

But if a member is believed to have turned against or compromised the gang, retribution can be swift and brutal, he said. When police arrested Godinez in the schoolyard shootings, his first concern was for his mother.

"My family is dead now that you arrested me," he told the arresting officer. "My homies are probably on the phone now, sending someone to where my mom lives...