Joseph Martinez, aka “Jupiter Joe,” was sentenced Thursday for the 1999 killing of a 13-year-old girl from the Bronx.
Martinez, 54, of New Rochelle, will serve 25 years to life for strangling Minerliz Soriano, sexually abusing her and discarding her body in a dumpster in Co-op City.
Martinez was arrested in November 2021 and found guilty on multiple counts of murder four years later.
Soriano was last seen walking home from her school, I.S. 15, on Feb. 24. Authorities discovered her body wrapped in a trash bag in the dumpster behind a video store four days later.
The case set a precedent in New York City courts as the first to use familial DNA technology to bring a case to trial, a technicality approved by the state in 2017.
“The defendant sexually abused Minerliz and killed her. He left her body in a dumpster in Co-op City, where she was found on Feb. 28, 1999. Bronx detectives and my ADAs never gave up in the quest for justice for this beautiful little girl. Their relentless dedication and compassion, coupled with advanced technology in DNA, led to the arrest and conviction,” said Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark. “Today is the final chapter, after 26 years of anguish, and I hope this sentence brings solace to Minerliz’s family and the childhood friend who compellingly testified at trial. Minerliz’s dream of flying to the stars as an astronaut was dashed, but her light will never dim for her loved ones.”