A New York City gang member who was convicted of killing a teenager has died in prison.
Pix 11 reports that Jonaiki Martinez-Estrella, a member of the Trinitarios gang, was found dead in his cell at Coxsackie Correctional Facility at around 1:16 p.m. on Friday. His cause of death is not yet known.
The 31-year-old was serving a sentence of 25 years to life with the possibility of parole after being found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of 15-year-old Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz. The Trinitarios gang had been accused of killing Guzman-Feliz in 2018.
In 2019, Martinez-Estrella was originally sentenced to life without parole after being convicted of first-degree murder, which included details of the “torture” inflicted on the teen. Martinez-Estrella was also convicted of wounding Guzman-Feliz in the neck, which killed him.
Later, in 2023, an appellate court overturned the first-degree murder conviction after disagreeing with the torture detail, and Martinez-Estrella was resentenced to second-degree murder in May 2025.
On June 20, 2018, four cars full of Trinitarios gang members pursued Guzman-Feliz on the street, wrongly thinking he was part of a rival gang. When the teenager attempted to hole up in a bodega, he was dragged outside and assaulted on the sidewalk in the Bronx. He found himself outside a local hospital, where he collapsed and bled out.
At least 13 Trinitarios members have been imprisoned in connection with the 15-year-old’s death, with several being sentenced to 25 years to life. Some accepted plea bargains in exchange for a lesser conviction of manslaughter.
