One of 14 men who was criminally charged in last year’s death of a 15-year-old New York boy will be given time served for being the prosecution’s star witness.
From WPIX, Kevin Alvarez, 19, revealed Tuesday that he has a cooperation agreement with the Office of the Bronx District Attorney. While Alvarez had pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter for the death of Lesandro Guzman-Feliz, he said won’t spend an additional day in jail if he provides truthful testimony in this and subsequent trials.
If Alvarez fully cooperates he will get time served on a fourth-degree conspiracy charge. He’ll be sentenced to 25 years if he doesn’t fulfill the terms of his agreement with prosecutors, according to the news station.
WPIX reported that Alvarez has been in protective custody since agreeing to the deal.
Alvarez said he was a probationary member of the Trinitarios gang when he dragged Guzman-Feliz out of a Bronx bodega to his stabbing death last year. He tearfully testified that he punched and kicked the teen as he hid behind the bodega’s door.
“He grabbed like this rack on the floor holding chips and he grabbed onto the door and the fridge,” he recounted, according to WPIX. “[He] kept fighting back.”
Once outside, a group of men—some who were wielding machetes and kitchen knives—reportedly beat and stabbed Guzman-Feliz. The teen got away but bled to death steps from a hospital.
The suspects, reportedly members of the Sures set of the Trinitarios gang, targeted the teen as they believed he was affiliated with a rival gang responsible for shooting one of their members two days earlier. However, police have said the teen’s murder was the result of mistaken identity.
In addition to identifying Jose Muniz, 21, as one of the assailants who had a machete, he named the five men filmed beating and stabbing Guzman-Feliz outside the bodega.
In addition to Muniz and Alvarez, the following 12 men have been charged in connection with last year’s slaying:
- Manuel Rivera, 18;
- Jonaiki Martinez Estrella, 24,
- Diego Suero, 29;
- Luis A. Cabrarasantos, 25;
- Frederick Then, 20;
- Danilo Payamps Pacheco, 21;
- Danel Fernandez, 21;
- Ronald Urena, 29;
- Santiago Rodriguez, 24;
- Elvin Garcia, 23;
- Jose Taverez, 21;
- and Gabriel Ramirez Concepcion, 26
[Featured image: Lesandro Guzman-Feliz/Facebook]
