NEW YORK—
The gang member convicted of killing 15-year-old Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz was found dead at a New York correctional facility on Friday, according to the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision website.
Jonaiki Martinez-Estrella, 31, was found dead in his cell at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility around 1:16 p.m., where he was serving a sentence of 25 years to life with the possibility of parole for second-degree murder, a spokesperson for DOCCS said.
State coroners and medical examiners will determine his cause of death, the spokesperson told PIX11 News in a statement.
Martinez-Estrella was originally sentenced on Oct. 11, 2019, to life without parole on a first-degree murder conviction, which involved an element of “torture.” He was convicted of inflicting the neck wound that killed Guzman on June 20, 2018.
An appellate court, in disagreement with the torture element, later overturned the defendant’s first-degree murder conviction in 2023. Martinez-Estrella was resentenced in May 2025.
Guzman-Feliz was chased by four cars filled with members of the Trinitarios gang who mistakenly thought he belonged to a rival gang in 2018.
The teen tried to hide in a bodega but was dragged out and attacked on the sidewalk on Bathgate Avenue in the Bronx. He collapsed outside St. Barnabas Hospital and bled to death.
At least 13 members of the gang have been sentenced, many receiving 25 years to life. Some took plea bargains for a manslaughter conviction.
Dominique Jack is a digital content producer from Brooklyn with more than five years of experience covering news. She joined PIX11 in 2024.
