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'Junior' Guzman killing: Five Trinitarios sentenced to life in prison for hacking teen to death with a machete outside Bronx bodega

Jonaiki Martinez Estrella, 25, Antonio Rodriguez Hernandez Santiago, 25, Jose Muniz, 23, Elvin Garcia, 25, and Manuel Rivera, 19, will all most likely be spending the rest of their life behind bars.
UPDATED MAR 10, 2020
(Source : Police Department)
(Source : Police Department)

The five Trinitarios gang members who brutally stabbed and killed 15-year-old Lesandro 'Junior' Guzman last year in the Bronx after mistaking him for a member of rival gang Sunset Crew have been sentenced to life in prison.

Jonaiki Martinez Estrella, 25, Antonio Rodriguez Hernandez Santiago, 25, Jose Muniz, 23, Elvin Garcia, 25, and Manuel Rivera, 19, were captured on video chasing down Guzman on the corner of East 183rd Street and Bathgate Avenue on June 20, 2018, after they were given orders to inflict 'any kind of damage' on rival gang members they across.

However, Guzman was not a part of the Sunset Crew as they assumed, but was an aspiring NYPD detective. The disturbing footage shows them chasing the 15-year-old into a bodega shortly before midnight, where the teen begged a cashier for help. One of the assailants then signaled to a group of five others who had gathered on a nearby street corner, and they dragged Guzman out of the store by his ankles even as he desperately tried to escape, holding on to the corner of the shop's door frame.

They eventually pulled him out into the street, where they attacked him with knives and a machete. He was stabbed over and over again as he lay on the floor, with Estrella delivering the fatal blow by striking him on the neck with a four-and-a-half inch knife. It severed the teen's jugular vein, causing him to bleed to death.

During the group's trial in June, Trinitarios gang member and cooperating witness Michael Sosa Reyes revealed that Estrella bragged about the murder and said Guzman was 'not going to eat for a very long time because I hit him in the neck.' The jury convicted all five defendants of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, second-degree conspiracy, and second-degree gang assault, less than a week before the first anniversary of the brutal killing. 

During their sentencing hearing this past week, Guzman's parents delivered heartbreaking victim impact statements where they decried their son's death and called for the killers to never be released from prison. "They killed an innocent child," said Leandra Feliz, his mother. "Of all these men, not a single one of them said, 'No, no, don't do it.' That night, there were two deaths, Junior and I, who was left dead inside."

"As a young boy, my son dreamed of becoming a detective, so he could protect this city... Please make sure my son's dreams come true. These killers should never be able to step out of a jail cell, so they know the moment they killed my son, they took their own lives as well." The teen's father, Lisandro Guzman, said he was struggling to handle his death. "I struggle daily to find meaning in my life," he said. "I am no longer the person I once was. It is impossible to find purpose in life."

"You will never have the ability to understand the pain that you caused. I will never forgive you. You deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. My hope is that you will never have a chance to hurt another child in the way you hurt mine. My hope is that another family will never have to live with the pain of losing a child, the pain that I will have to live with for the rest of my life."

Judge Robert Neary first sentenced Estrella, who had delivered the fatal blow, to life behind bars without the possibility of parole. Co-defendants Santiago, Muniz, and Garcia were all sentenced to 25 to life, while Rivera, was handed a lesser sentence of 23 years to life because of his age.  

There was no remorse displayed by Estrella and Muniz, who were snapped laughing and making gun gestures towards photographers in the courtroom throughout their hearing.

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