LYNN — Henri Salvador Gutierrez, also known as “Perverso,” was sentenced to life in prison in federal court in Boston on Wednesday for RICO conspiracy and for his participation in the murders of two teenagers in Massachusetts — one in 2016 in East Boston and the other in 2018 in Lynn.
A member of the MS-13 gang, Gutierrez pleaded guilty to a racketeering, or RICO, conspiracy on behalf of MS-13 in June 2021, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
Gutierrez, 23, played a role in two murders in which teenagers were repeatedly stabbed to death in public parks in Massachusetts. Each of the victims were murdered with extreme atrocity and cruelty in violation of Massachusetts law, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
MS-13, or La Mara Salvatrucha, is a transnational street gang operating in Massachusetts and numerous other states, as well as countries including El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.
MS-13 gang members often commit acts of extreme violence against suspected rivals, those suspected of cooperating with law enforcement, and others who the gang views as a threat.
MS-13 is organized into “cliques” or branches operating in local territories.
Gutierrez, a Salvadoran national, was a member of the “Sykos Locos Salvatrucha” (Sykos) and, previously, the “Trece Locos Salvatrucha” (TLS) cliques of MS-13, prosecutors said.
Becoming promoted in MS-13 usually requires committing a significant act of violence, often murder. The evidence in this case showed that Gutierrez was a “homeboy,” or full member of the MS-13 gang, prosecutors said.
The evidence in this case, which included a recording of Gutierrez describing the murder in graphic detail and boasting about it, also revealed that the gang members murdered the victim based on their mistaken belief that he may have been assisting law enforcement, prosecutors said.
In the recordings, Gutierrez seemingly took pleasure in recounting the horrific act and expressed laughter while saying the murder was like “chopping wood,” as he and fellow gang members “were stabbing the knife right through him, bringing it down like… bang, bang, bang, bang,” prosecutors said.
On Dec. 24, 2016, Gutierrez participated in the murder of a teenage boy in East Boston, prosecutors said.
Evidence showed that Gutierrez lured the victim to a public soccer stadium based on Gutierrez’s belief that the victim may have been associated with a rival gang, prosecutors said.
Gutierrez stabbed the victim numerous times and left the victim’s body at the bottom of a stairwell, with an autopsy revealing the victim had at least a dozen sharp-force wounds consistent with a stabbing, with significant injuries to the neck, chest and back. His throat also appeared to have been slashed, and he had multiple incised wounds to the neck and multiple stab wounds to the chest, prosecutors said.
In 2017, while the December 2016 murder remained unsolved, immigration authorities arrested Gutierrez, unrelated to that investigation, as part of ongoing removal proceedings, proecutors said.
Gutierrez had entered the United States unlawfully in 2014 and was facing deportation. Authorities pointed to evidence of his association with MS-13 as part of the reasons to oppose Gutierrez’s petition for asylum and other relief, prosecutors said.
Gutierrez submitted an affidavit and testified under oath at his removal proceedings.
Through his statements, Gutierrez misled the immigration court, telling the court that he was not associated with MS-13, had not committed prior violence, and was committed to living a peaceful life in the United States, prosecutors said.
Relying in part on Gutierrez’s false testimony, a United States immigration judge ordered Gutierrez released and adjusted his status to that of a person admitted for lawful permanent residence in the United States, prosecutors said.
On July 30, 2018, barely a month after being released from immigration custody, Gutierrez committed his second murder, this time with five members of the Sykos clique of MS-13.
The six assailants, four secretly armed with knives, took a 17-year-old boy to a park in Lynn and pretended to be friendly with the unsuspecting victim, prosecutors said.
Following an investigation in November 2018, Gutierrez was indicted along with the five other MS-13 members who participated in the July 2018 murder in Lynn, prosecutors said.
All six defendants indicted in this case, along with a juvenile charged in a related case, have pleaded guilty. Gutierrez is the third defendant to be sentenced in the case, prosecutors said.
On Feb. 14, Erick Lopez Flores, also known as “Mayimbu,” was sentenced to 40 years in prison; on Feb. 15, Jonathan Tercero Yanes, also known as “Desalmado,” was sentenced to 33 years in prison; Djavier Duggins, also known as “Haze,” was scheduled to be sentenced for RICO conspiracy on Thursday; and sentencing hearings for the two remaining co-defendants, Eliseo Vaquerano Canas, also known as “Peligroso” and Marlos Reyes, also known as “Silencio,” have not yet been scheduled by the court.
