Last remaining defendant pleads guilty in brutal Bronx murder of ‘Junior’ Guzman-Feliz

The last Trinitarios gang member responsible for the horrifying 2018 murder of 15-year-old Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz, was convicted for manslaughter on Tuesday, the Bronx district attorney’s office said.

Danel Fernandez, 25, a member of the “Los Sures” subset of the Trinitarios gang, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Ralph Fabrizio for his role in the slaying.

Fernandez will be sentenced to 18 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision on Jan. 13, the Bronx DA’s office said. He was the last of 13 defendants convicted for playing a part in caught-on-camera murder on June 20, 2018.

“This brings an end to the case, but will never bring closure for Junior’s grieving family,” said Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark.

The defendants mistook Junior for a member of a rival gang and chased him into a Belmont bodega, where he tried to hide behind the clerk’s counter. Video showed the group beating Junior before dragging him onto the sidewalk, where they hacked him to death with knives and a machete.

The young boy had no gang affiliations and was in fact a member of the NYPD Explorers’ Program, which introduces young kids to careers in law enforcement.

Though Fernandez did not stab Guzman, he took part in beating and dragging him from inside the bodega before others let loose with their blades.

The five co-defendants who stabbed Guzman were convicted of murder and sentenced in 2019. The two leaders who ordered the slaying were sentenced in September of this year for orchestrating the attack. In November, five other defendants pleaded guilty to manslaughter.