Two of the five gangbangers convicted for the violent murder of Bronx teenager Lesandro ‘Junior’ Guzman-Feliz flashed gang signs during their sentencing in court Friday.
New York Post photographer, Richard Harbus, caught the moment when Jonaiki Martinez Estrella, 25, and Jose Muniz, 23, threw up the “seven points” Trinitario gang sign.
Gangbangers throw up Trinitarios gang symbol at sentencing in 'Junior' killing https://t.co/fsQWVXA282 pic.twitter.com/7HRtV6gDid
— New York Post (@nypost) October 11, 2019
Prosecutor Morgan Dolan told Judge Robert Neary that Estrella “put Trinitarios before all else,” according to Pix 11 News.
Dolan also noted that Estrella told a witness that Guzman-Feliz would “not be able to eat for a very long time,” after he admitted to stabbing the 15-year-old to death.
On Friday, Breitbart News reported that five of the gangbangers were slammed with heavy sentences for killing the teenager, who was a member of the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) Explorers program.
The report continued:
The gangbangers stabbed Guzman-Feliz to death after they mistook him for a rival gang member. The men dragged him out of the Cruz and Chiky bodega in Belmont and proceeded to stab him with machetes and knives. Video of the brutal slaying was caught on a surveillance camera, and prosecutors claimed that the four and a half-inch wound Martinez Estrella was seen delivering to the victim’s neck was what ultimately caused his death.
On June 15, Breitbart News reported that following the murder, news of Guzman-Feliz’s death went viral online with community members using the hashtag #JusticeforJunior to voice their sadness and frustration.
In June of 2018, the leader of the deadly street gang reportedly said he was “sorry” the Trinitarios targeted Guzman-Feliz, adding that “I know it doesn’t mean a lot. It wasn’t supposed to be him,” according to Breitbart News.
“The leader reportedly went on to say in a two-minute Snapchat recording that all the people responsible for the brutal slaying have been kicked out of the gang,” the report concluded.
In court Friday, Judge Neary blasted Estrella for his part in the heinous crime.
“You chased down and slaughtered a 15 year old defenseless boy. Why? To be a big shot in a gang,” he commented.
Estrella was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole and Muniz was sentenced to 25 years to life behind bars.
“Throwing it up was basically shoving it up the a– of the system that the Trinitarios will be who they are forever and you can put us in prison and we don’t respect your system,” said gang expert and retired NYPD sergeant Lou Savelli.
“They were arrogant from the very beginning,” he concluded.
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