Quinceañero Junior Guzmán stabbed by gang members in New York warehouse: last Hispanic defendant pleaded guilty
Danel Fernández, the last member of the “Trinitarios” gang accused of the violent homicide in a winery of the fifteen-year-old Lesandro “Junior” Guzmán Felizpleaded guilty and was convicted of manslaughter yesterdayreported the district attorney of The Bronx (NYC).
Fernández, 25, a member of the “Los Sures” subset of the gang “Trinitarians”, pleaded guilty to first degree manslaughter before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Ralph Fabrizio.
He will be sentenced on January 13 to 18 years in prison and five more of supervision post-release, the prosecution said. Was the last of the 13 sentenced for participating in the violent murder “by mistake” captured by security cameras on June 20, 2018. It is considered one of the most brutal and graphically evident crimes in New York history.
“This ends the case, but it will never bring closure to Junior’s grieving family,” said Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, quoted by Daily News.
Two weeks ago, five other members of “Los Sures” had also pleaded guilty to murder in this case. last july two “Trinitarios” gang members were found guilty to order the death of Guzmán, who was dragged out of a warehouse in Tremont and stabbed to death because he was apparently mistaken for another boy. The first five gang members tried had already been convicted in October 2019 for the brutal homicide.
“I will never forgive them for having decided to murder my son. You are and will always be a danger to society (…) My hope is that another family never has to live with the pain of losing a child,” the court said at the time. victim’s father, Lisandro Guzmán.
This gang crime launched an international movement on social media under the hashtag #justiceforjunior seeking justice for the teen. attacked by young Latinos armed with machetes and knives in the middle of the street, and who ran bleeding until he collapsed in a hospital in the Bronx.
They are Dominican mother, Leandra Feliz, became the face of mourning and has been advocating for a bill to install panic buttons in all New York warehouses. “My son has already passed away,” he said in 2019. “They killed my son. We have to protect our future children and our community.”
At the time of the crime, Feliz was working as a housekeeper in the Intensive Care Unit at St. Barnabas Hospital, the same one where her son was pronounced dead.
A total of 15 men were charged in connection with the brutal stabbing of Guzmán, including two that became witnesses who cooperated with the prosecution.
In New York the interior and surroundings of warehouses are frequently crime scenes, both robberies and homicides. Until the beginning of July there had been reports 195 NYC warehouse robberies in 2022according to the police.
Earlier that month a Dominican employee was arrested for killing an intruder during a confrontation at a Harlem bodega. days later it was cleared of all charges in the midst of a controversy in which even the mayor of New York, Eric Adams, supported him by saying that he was a worker who had acted in self-defense. The case also served to revive complaints about the growing insecurity in New York stores and warehouses.
Then in November a fight inside a warehouse spilled over into the street and ended with a young man shot to death by police in a confusing incident in The Bronx (NYC).
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