Five of ‘Junior’ Guzman-Feliz’s attackers get life sentences for Bronx murder
By
Georgett Roberts and
Natalie Musumeci
October 11, 2019 | 11:49am |
Updated
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Lesandro "Junior" Guzman-Feliz was killed outside a Bronx bodega in 2018. Facebook
The five gangbangers convicted in the vicious Bronx
slaying of teen Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz were sentenced Friday to up to life behind bars.
Jonaiki Martinez Estrella, 25, was the first to be handed the hefty sentence of life in prison without parole in a Bronx courtroom by Judge Robert Neary.
Co-defendants Antonio Rodriguez Hernandez
Santiago, 25, Jose Muniz, 23, and Elvin Garcia, 25, were each hit with a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
The other gang member, 19-year-old Manuel Rivera, was given a slightly lesser sentence of 23 years to life behind bars.
The sentences — which were handed down separately — come more than a year after the heinous June 20, 2018, machete and knife killing of the 15-year-old rocked the city.
In June, less than a week before the anniversary of the murder, a jury
convicted the five Trinitarios gang members on charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, second-degree conspiracy and second-degree gang assault.
Guzman-Feliz was stabbed to death by the vicious pack of thugs outside the Cruz and Chiky bodega after he was dragged out of the Belmont store in a case of mistaken identity.
The caught-on-camera slaying happened about a block from where the boy lived with his
family.
Prosecutors have argued that surveillance video shows that Martinez Estrella delivered the 4½-inch-deep knife blow to Guzman-Feliz’s neck that ultimately killed the teen.
Guzman-Feliz had run into the bodega at East 183rd Street and Bathgate Avenue after being chased b
y the group around midnight that night.
The teen, who was in the NYPD’s Explorers program, died after collapsing near the entrance of St. Barnabas Hospital.
Eight other defendants in the case are still awaiting trial.