Lesandro “Junior” Guzman Feliz, 15, was killed by a vicious gang attack in the Bronx on June 20, 2018.
Her mother, overcome by emotion, was restrained and carried out by of a courtroom by police on May 23 after she started screaming and shaking in her seat during a cross-examination of witness Kevin Alvarez.
Leandra Feliz, the mother of Lesandro, began losing control when graphic CCTV footage of her son’s murder was shown in court.
According to the NY Post, Bronx Supreme Court Judge Robert Neary complained about the disruption, calling for a lunch break in the court, saying that “someone became rather hysterical, demonstrably, and screamed.”
Defense Attorney Kyle Watters was questioning 20-year-old Alvarez’s version of what happened the night when Junior was chased, beaten, dragged, and eventually stabbed to death by five men outside of a bodega in Bronx.
Watters showed footage of Alvarez going through a glass partition door that segregated the gang members from Junior, and asked Alvarez, “But for you pushing through that door, Junior would have stayed on the other side of the door.”
When another part of the video was shown, where Junior, fatally wounded, stood on the sidewalk holding his neck after being turned away for the second time from the bodega, Leandra Feliz started screaming “No, no, no!”
She started pounding her fists on the bench and looked as if she were going to faint, she also started shaking. Two friends tried to keep her under control but failed, so three police officers tried to comfort her and withdrew her from the courtroom, telling the witnesses in the hallway not to film, saying it is a “medical emergency.”
During the lunch break, two emergency medical technicians entered the courthouse and a friend of Feliz told the NY Post, “She needs medical assistance right now. She needs to be at ease and calm down.”
Leandra had been previously confronted by one of the supporters of Junior’s accused killers. She also screamed in previous trials, calling the videos “mental abuse.” On the third day of the murder trial, she said “I cannot see no more of those videos. It’s too much.”
Assistant District Attorney Morgan Dolan revealed the finals moments of Guzman-Feliz on May 6 during the first-degree murder trial for the five men who allegedly attacked the teen, reported Crime Online.
Dolan described the 15-year-old as “alone, unarmed, defenseless and outmanned.”
The murder suspects reportedly belonged to the Sures group of the Trinitarios gang and attacked Guzman-Feliz because they believed him to be a rival member of the Sunset crew. The attack was recorded by a witness and nearby surveillance cameras.
Police said the teen was not involved in any gang and even participated in NYPD’s Explorers program, which helps “teens and young adults learn about law enforcement and careers in the field,” according to the program’s website.
Trial begins for 2018 machete murder of Bronx teen ‘Junior’ Guzman-Feliz
The senseless killing shocked the city when video emerged showing the teen being hauled out of a bodega and murdered by alleged gang members.https://t.co/O2wpJydAZV
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) May 6, 2019
“By the time we got downstairs, he was already in front of the hospital, collapsed,” said Tamika Jones, a witness who testified on Monday.
“One of my friends took off her shirt and put it against his neck to try and stop the bleeding. He had blood all over his body. He was trying to stay alive, holding his wound himself,” she said.
A day after the opening statements, prosecutors played the video of the teen being brutally killed, while his mother, Leandra Feliz left the courtroom in tears.
“Was so frustrating, haven’t digested it yet,” she said according to ABC7. “I’m still too kind of out of mind … I had to close my eyes, look away, it was torture.”
Epoch Times reporter Venus Upadhayaya contributed to this report.
