Latest news with #gangviolence
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Bronx gang member who struck fatal knife blow against Lesandro ‘Junior' Guzman Feliz resentenced
The Bronx gang member accused of delivering the fatal blow against 15-year-old Lesandro 'Junior' Guzman Feliz, but managed to get his first-degree murder conviction tossed, was resentenced to 25 years to life in the case that rattled the city to its core, officials said Saturday. Jonaiki Martinez-Estrella, 30, was initially facing life in prison without the possibility of parole when an appeals court vacated his murder one conviction in 2023, finding that 'the evidence did not establish the very specific elements of that crime.' Martinez-Estrella remained convicted of second-degree murder, conspiracy, and gang assault. On Friday, a Bronx Criminal Court judge resentenced him to 25 years to life, Bronx DA Darcel Clark said. 'Thirteen other defendants who had a role in Junior's murder on June 20, 2018, have been held accountable for their actions and remain in prison serving their respective sentences,' Clark said. The killing, in which Junior was dragged into the street and slashed to death, drew outrage in the city at the time. The suspects, members of the Trinitarios gang were looking for a rival gang known as the Sunsets when they spotted their 15-year-old victim, police said at the time. Mistaking Junior for a Sunset member, they chased the teen to the Cruz and Chiky Grocery on E. 183rd St. near Bathgate Ave. in Belmont. There, several members yanked Junior out of the deli and butchered him with knives and a machete. Martinez-Estrella was caught on camera 'holding Junior by his sweatshirt' before he 'thrust his large knife directly into Junior's throat,' according to court papers. 'It is undisputed that the resulting wound, which was 4 and a half inches deep and severed the jugular vein, was the sole cause of death,' the documents read. A jury convicted Martinez-Estrella of first-degree murder, but the appellate court determined that prosecutors provided evidence that the one blow was a 'course of conduct' that inflicted 'extreme physical pain,' or that he 'evidenced a sense of pleasure in the infliction of extreme physical pain' — both requirements for the charge. In an exclusive 2019 interview Martinez-Estrella claimed he didn't kill Junior. He said he didn't have a tattoo like the one depicted on the killer and was in Pennsylvania at the time of the murder. '[I] didn't even know what Junior looked like until I saw his face on television,' he said at a Manhattan Detention Center awaiting trial.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Bronx gang member who struck fatal knife blow against Lesandro ‘Junior' Guzman Feliz resentenced
The Bronx gang member accused of delivering the fatal blow against 15-year-old Lesandro 'Junior' Guzman Feliz, but managed to get his first-degree murder conviction tossed, was resentenced to 25 years to life in the case that rattled the city to its core, officials said Saturday. Jonaiki Martinez-Estrella, 30, was initially facing life in prison without the possibility of parole when an appeals court vacated his murder one conviction in 2023, finding that 'the evidence did not establish the very specific elements of that crime.' Martinez-Estrella remained convicted of second-degree murder, conspiracy, and gang assault. On Friday, a Bronx Criminal Court judge resentenced him to 25 years to life, Bronx DA Darcel Clark said. 'Thirteen other defendants who had a role in Junior's murder on June 20, 2018, have been held accountable for their actions and remain in prison serving their respective sentences,' Clark said. The killing, in which Junior was dragged into the street and slashed to death, drew outrage in the city at the time. The suspects, members of the Trinitarios gang were looking for a rival gang known as the Sunsets when they spotted their 15-year-old victim, police said at the time. Mistaking Junior for a Sunset member, they chased the teen to the Cruz and Chiky Grocery on E. 183rd St. near Bathgate Ave. in Belmont. There, several members yanked Junior out of the deli and butchered him with knives and a machete. Martinez-Estrella was caught on camera 'holding Junior by his sweatshirt' before he 'thrust his large knife directly into Junior's throat,' according to court papers. 'It is undisputed that the resulting wound, which was 4 and a half inches deep and severed the jugular vein, was the sole cause of death,' the documents read. A jury convicted Martinez-Estrella of first-degree murder, but the appellate court determined that prosecutors provided evidence that the one blow was a 'course of conduct' that inflicted 'extreme physical pain,' or that he 'evidenced a sense of pleasure in the infliction of extreme physical pain' — both requirements for the charge. In an exclusive 2019 interview Martinez-Estrella claimed he didn't kill Junior. He said he didn't have a tattoo like the one depicted on the killer and was in Pennsylvania at the time of the murder. '[I] didn't even know what Junior looked like until I saw his face on television,' he said at a Manhattan Detention Center awaiting trial.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Chabria: Even tough-on-crime district attorneys know prison reform is smart
On a recent morning inside San Quentin prison, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman and more than a dozen other prosecutors crowded into a high-ceilinged meeting hall surrounded by killers, rapists and other serious offenders. Name the crime, one of these guys has probably done it. "It's not every day that you're in a room of 100 people, most of whom have committed murder, extremely violent crimes, and been convicted of it," Hochman later said. Many of these men, in their casual blue uniforms, were serving long sentences with little chance of getting out, like Marlon Arturo Melendez, an L.A. native who is now in for murder. Melendez sat in a "sharing circle," close enough to Hochman that their knees could touch, no bars between them. They chatted about the decrease in gang violence in the decades since Melendez was first incarcerated more than 20 years ago, and Melendez said he found Hochman "interesting." Inside San Quentin, this kind of interaction between inmates and guests isn't unusual. For decades, the prison by the Bay has been doing incarceration differently, cobbling together a system that focuses on accountability and rehabilitation. Like the other men in the room, Melendez takes responsibility for the harm he caused, and every day works to be a better man. When he introduces himself, he names his victims — an acknowledgment that what he did can't be undone but also an acknowledgment that he doesn't have to remain the same man who pulled the trigger. Whether or not Melendez or any of these men ever walk free, what was once California's most notorious lockup is now a place that offers them the chance to change and provides the most elusive of emotions for prisoners — hope. Creating that culture is a theory and practice of imprisonment that Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to make the standard across the state. Read more: Chabria: California to transform infamous San Quentin prison with Scandinavian ideas, rehab focus He's dubbed it the California Model, but as I've written about before, it's common practice in other countries (and even in a few places in the United States). It's based on a simple truth about incarceration: Most people who go into prison come out again. Public safety demands that they behave differently when they do. "We are either paying to keep them here or we are paying if they come back out and harm somebody," said Brooke Jenkins, the district attorney of San Francisco, who has visited San Quentin regularly for years. Jenkins was the organizer of this unusual day that brought district attorneys from around the state inside of San Quentin to gain a better understanding of how the California Model works, and why even tough-on-crime district attorneys should support transforming our prisons. As California does an about-face away from a decade of progressive criminal justice advances with new crackdowns such as those promised by the recently passed Proposition 36 (which is expected to increase the state inmate population), it is also continuing to move ahead with the controversial plan to remake prison culture, both for inmates and guards, by centering on rehabilitation over punishment. Despite a tough economic year that is requiring the state to slash spending, Newsom has kept intact more than $200 million from the prior budget to revamp San Quentin so that its outdated facilities can support more than just locking up folks in cells. Some of that construction, already happening on the grounds, is expected to be completed next year. It will make San Quentin the most visible example of the California Model. But changes in how inmates and guards interact and what rehabilitation opportunities are available are already underway at prisons across the state. It is an overdue and profound transformation that has the potential to not only improve public safety and save money in the long run, but to fundamentally reshape what incarceration means across the country. Jenkins' push to help more prosecutors understand and value this metamorphosis might be crucial to helping the public support it as well — especially for those D.A.s whose constituents are just fine with a system that locks up men to suffer for their (often atrocious) crimes. Or even those Californians, such as many in San Francisco and Los Angeles, who are just fed up with the perception that California is soft on criminals. "It's not about moderate or progressive, but I think all of us that are moderates have to admit that there are reforms that still need to happen," Jenkins told me as we walked through the prison yard. She took office after the successful recall of her progressive predecessor, Chesa Boudin, and a rightward shift in San Francisco on crime policy. Still, she is vocal about the need for second chances. For her, prison reform is about more than the California Model, but a broader lens that includes the perspectives of incarcerated people, and their insights on what they need to make rehabilitation work. "It really grounds you in your obligation to make sure that the culture in the [district attorney's] office is fair," she said. For Hochman, a former federal prosecutor and defense lawyer who resoundingly ousted progressive George Gascón last year, rehabilitation makes sense. He likes to paraphrase a Fyodor Dostoevsky quote, 'The degree of civilization in a society is revealed by entering its prisons.' "In my perfect world, the education system, the family system, the community, would have done all this work on the front end such that these people wouldn't have been in position to commit crimes in the first place," he said. But when that fails, it's up to the criminal justice system to help people fix themselves. Read more: Chabria: Bringing the death penalty back to L.A. is politics and hubris, not justice Despite being perceived as a tough-on-crime D.A. (he prefers "fair on crime") he's so committed to that goal of rehabilitation that he is determined to push for a new Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles County — an expensive (billions) and unpopular idea that he says is long overdue but critical to public safety. "Los Angeles County is absolutely failing because our prisons and jails are woefully inadequate," he said. He's quick to add that rehabilitation isn't for everyone. Some just aren't ready for it. Some don't care. The inmates of San Quentin agree with him. They are often fiercely vocal about who gets transferred to the prison, knowing that its success relies on having incarcerated people who want to change — one rogue inmate at San Quentin could ruin it for all of them. "It has to be a choice. You have to understand that for yourself," Oscar Acosta told me. Now 32, he's a "CDC baby," as he puts it — referring to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation — and has been behind bars since he was 18. He credits San Quentin with helping him accept responsibility for his crimes and see a path forward. When the California Model works, as the district attorneys saw, it's obvious what its value is. Men who once were nothing but dangerous have the option to live different lives, with different values. Even if they remain incarcerated. "After having been considered the worst of the worst, today I am a new man," Melendez told me. "I hope (the district attorneys) were able to see real change in those who sat with them and be persuaded that rehabilitation over punishment is more fruitful and that justice seasoned with restoration is better for all." Melendez and the other incarcerated men at San Quentin aspire for us to see them as more than their worst actions. And they take heart that even prosecutors like Jenkins and Hochman, who put them behind bars, sometimes with triple-digit sentences, do see that the past does not always determine the future, and that investing in their change is an investment in safer communities. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Thug convicted in vicious 2018 gang slaying of ‘Junior' Guzman-Feliz gets new sentence after NY court tossed first-degree murder rap
A Bronx hood convicted in the vicious gang slaying of 15-year-old Lesandro 'Junior' Guzman-Feliz was hit with a new prison sentence after a state appeals court tossed his first-degree murder rap. Jonaiki Martinez-Estrella, 27, was among two dozen members of the 'Trinitarios' street gang busted in the shocking June 20, 2018, caught-on-video attack on the teenager at the Zesarina Grocery store in Belmont, in what authorities said was a case of mistaken identity. Martinez-Estrella was found guilty of first- and second-degree murder in the case in 2019, and was sentenced to a prison term of life without parole for allegedly delivering the death blow to the teen. But the convicted killer appealed and, in 2023, a New York State Appellate Division panel threw out the top charge, which carries the life without parole sentence. 'The evidence established that defendant committed an extremely heinous second-degree murder,' the panel's decision said. 'However, we vacate his conviction of first-degree murder under [the law] because the evidence did not establish the very specific element of that crime.' Shipped back to Bronx Supreme Court, Martinez-Estrella was hit with the top sentence of 25 years to life behind bars on the second-degree murder charge, Bronx prosecutors said. The vicious murder shocked the Big Apple for its senseless brutality. Martinez-Estrella and his cowardly crew were out looking for members of the rival 'Sunsets' gang when they spotted Guzman-Feliz near the bodega — and chased him inside. Despite the teen's claims that he wasn't a gang member, the mob beat him in the store, then dragged him into the street and hacked him to death with knives and machetes, leaving his lifeless body behind. Following the arrests, the smug killers smiled and flashed gang signs in court. But justice eventually caught up with all of the suspects. 'Thirteen other defendants who had a role in Junior's murder on June 20, 2018, have been held accountable for their actions and remain in prison serving their respective sentences,' the Bronx District Attorney's Office said in a press release Friday.
The Sun
2 days ago
- General
- The Sun
Pensioner dad of executed man left bloodied after attack by hoods from rival clan
THE pensioner dad of an executed man was left bloodied after he was attacked by hoods from a rival clan. Joe Lee, 68, was bottled by one thug while a knife maniac tried to stab him in the unprovoked attack. 3 3 His son Jamie Lee, 23, was gunned down in Castlemilk, Glasgow, in 2017 by Jordan Owens, 31, amid a violent feud between two factions. Joe was also hit twice by bullets in that attack — with the third bullet killing his lad. Now fears of tensions exploding again have been heightened after Wednesday night's horror in nearby Rutherglen. One local said: 'It's been quiet for a while, but now everyone is worried it's all going to kick off. 'Attacking a vulnerable man is the lowest of the low, but that's what these folk are, rats. 'Revenge is in the air and a tit-for-tat feud could easily explode. "Neither side will speak to the police. They will take care of things themselves.' Organised crime member Owens fled the scene of Jamie's assassination in a playpark and was at large for two years before being caught in Lisbon, Portugal. He is serving at least 23 years in jail. Joe declined to comment. Police Scotland confirmed it 'received a report of an assault on a 68-year-old man in Rutherglen'.
