The final five suspects linked to the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old boy who was mistaken by his attackers for a rival gang member were sentenced Friday, marking the end of the 2018 murder captured on video that sparked outrage in New York City and beyond.
In total, 13 people were prosecuted for the death of Lesandro Guzmán-Feliz, also known as “Junior.”
Guzmán-Feliz was stabbed to death at a bodega in the Bronx on June 20, 2018. Five other defendants attacked the victim with knives and a machete, prosecutors said, citing trial evidence.
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This undated file photo provided by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) shows 15-year-old Lesandro Guzmán-Feliz, who was attacked at a bodega in the Bronx borough of New York on June 19, 2018 and died after being cut in the neck. with a machete
(NYPD via AP)
All six pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received prison terms ranging from 12 to 18 years. All five were convicted of murder and received sentences of at least 23 years; one was sentenced to life in prison behind bars.
In an apparent case of “mistaken identity”, members of the trinidadian street gang they have said their intended target was not the teenager they allegedly attacked.
The five defendants sentenced Friday and a sixth sentenced earlier in the week dragged the teenager, an aspiring police officer who was a member of the New York Police Department’s Explorers program, out of the store where he tried to hide.
He was stabbed multiple times while the attack was being filmed.
Two gang leaders started the assault by telling their subordinates to go after members of another subgroup of their gang, prosecutors said. The two leaders were found guilty of murder and sentenced last year to 25 years in prison for life behind bars.
Mourners gather at a community memorial in front of a bodega in New York Tuesday, June 26, 2018, where 15-year-old Lesandro Guzmán-Feliz was killed in a machete attack days earlier.
(AP Photo/Baby Matthews)
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Guzmán-Feliz was not affiliated with any gang, authorities said. However, the gang members focused on him.
The murder shocked the Bronx community where it occurred and the world, leaving it “appalled by such (a) complete disregard for human life,” Bronx County District Attorney Darcel Clark said.
