Jonaiki Martinez-Estrella, one of the gang members convicted of the brutal 2018 killing of 15-year-old Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz, was found dead in a New York Prison.
According to ABC 7 Chicago, the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said that the 31-year-old was being held at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility at the time of his death. The cause of his death was, however, not disclosed.
The teen’s killing, which was a case of mistaken identity, made national headlines. The deceased 31-year-old is said to have landed the fatal blow when he stabbed Guzman-Feliz in the neck.
In May, Martinez-Estrella was resentenced to 25 years to life in prison. His resentencing in the teen’s murder came after his first-degree murder conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeals in May 2023.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark said that Martinez-Estrella and thirteen other individuals were convicted of Guzman-Feliz’s killing. At the time, authorities claimed that the convicted men were members of the Trinitarios gang.
The fatal incident occurred on June 20, 2018, at a bodega in the Bronx. Law enforcement officials who responded to the scene were told that Guzman-Feliz suffered a machete wound to the neck during an altercation at the store.
In the aftermath of the incident, the victim is said to have fled to the nearby St. Barnabas Hospital, but he later succumbed to his injuries, with officials saying that his dying words were a request for water, ABC 7 Chicago reported.
Guzman-Feliz lived near the bodega, and prior to the incident, authorities said he told his mother that he was going to settle a $5 debt that he owed a friend.
“All I can say was that he was a good kid,” his sister, Genesis Collado-Feliz, said. “He just played PlayStation. He played Fortnite. He played 2K, like every 15-year-old. He asked me for advice with girls.”
The deceased teen, who wanted to pursue career in law enforcement, was also a member of the NYPD‘s Youth Explorer Program.
“They killed an innocent child,” Guzman-Feliz’s mother said in her impact statement. “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.”
