HUNTED, CHASED & SLAIN
WITNESS SPILLS GRIM DETAILS
Gangbangers on a revenge mission relentlessly hunted down and killed Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz — even blocking the 15-year-old’s desperate dash to the hospital where his mother worked — in the mistaken assumption he was a member of a rival group, a witness in the killers’ trial testified Monday.
Cooperating witness Kevin Alvarez, breaking down in tears, described in hair-raising detail the sickening June 20, 2018, chase in the Belmont section of the Bronx that cornered the terrified teen in a bodega before he was hacked with a machete.
On the order of a Trinitarios Los Sures leader, followers were told “we were having problems with (rival clique) Sunset and that everybody had to walk around with a weapon — and do whatever possible to hurt a Sunset member,” the baby-faced Alvarez, 19, testified in Bronx Criminal Court.
On the night of Junior’s slaying, Alvarez said he drove gang members toward Belmont’s “Little Italy” section to look for the Sunsets’ hangout. He said they spotted Junior, walking along while talking on his cell phone, at 183rd St. and Crescent Ave.
“Once he was spotted walking down the block, we rolled down the window and certain members that were with us that day started yelling Trinitarios (slang) at him,” Alvarez said. “The kid just looked up, and at that moment people started stepping out of their vehicles, approaching the kid.”
Alvarez said that while he remained in the car, he saw Junior bolt after a brief exchange.
“He looked surprised and scared and he started running,” Alvarez testified. “The only thing I heard him say is that he wasn’t Sunset …. That’s when all the guys that were in front of him made a gesture … like they were gonna hit him … and he started running.”
Alvarez said he and the other gang members chased Junior up to the entrance of St. Barnabas Hospital, where Junior’s mother worked. Alvarez said he blocked the teen from getting onto hospital grounds. “He turned and ran across the street toward the deli,” he said.
Breaking down in tears and turning away from the five defendants seated right in front of him, Alvarez recounted the horrifying confrontation inside the store between the petrified Junior and his attackers.
“He was behind the counter trying to hide … he was trying to go under the counter and trying to go behind the owner of the deli,” Alvarez said.
Deli workers ordered the group “take it outside,” he said.
Alvarez admitted punching Junior in the face and kicking him a few times as the boy tried to fight back before being dragged out of the store.
“He’s trying to cling onto things inside the store so we don’t drag him out,” he said. “He grabbed this rack thing with chips … He grabbed onto the door … He grabbed onto the fridge.”
Alvarez said he first saw weapons once outside the bodega, testifying defendant Jose Muñiz had “a machete. That’s the first thing I saw when I exited the store.”
“At that point I got scared … just about what was about to happen,” he testified.
Alvarez said as he ran to his car, he looked back and saw the group stabbing Junior even as the teen was “still fighting, trying to block himself, asking for help.”
Leaving the Bronx courthouse, Junior’s mother, Leandra Feliz, lashed out at Alvarez and the defendants.
“They killed my son,” she said. “My son was innocent … They just abused him … They know he was innocent. He said he wasn’t a gang member, they knew. (Alvarez) knows he was not a gang member. They knew that, and anyway they killed him. Just for fun.”
Charged with murder in the case are Muñiz, Antonio Rodriguez, Hernandez Santiago, Elvin Garcia, Jonaiki Martinez Estrella, and Manuel Rivera. They also face charges of manslaughter, conspiracy, gang assault and criminal possession of a weapon. They face life in prison if convicted.