The man convicted in the 1999 murder of a Bronx teenager was finally sentenced Thursday.

A judge sentenced 54-year-old Joseph Martinez, also known as “Jupiter Joe,” to 25 years to life in prison for murdering 13-year-old Minerliz Soriano.

“This was a girl who had a bright future, and it was stolen,” the judge said.  

Arrest of “Jupiter Joe”

In 1999, Soriano’s body was found in a dumpster behind a Bronx video store. Prosecutors said she had been sexually abused and strangled.

Investigators spent two decades searching for the killer before arresting Martinez in 2021.

“A DNA sample from a semen stain on the victim’s sweatshirt was submitted, and it led to Martinez,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said.

It became the first case in New York City solved using familial DNA.

A jury convicted Martinez in November 2025.

“I didn’t get enough time with her”

In court Thursday, Martinez offered condolences while maintaining his innocence.

“Even now facing sentencing, I still hold true to my convictions. That said, I wholeheartedly disagree with the jury’s verdict,” he said.

Kimberly Ortiz, who testified, said she made a promise to never stop until she found the person who killed her best friend.

“I just wanna say that today, we kept that promise,” Ortiz said. “My friend has been in the ground for 27 years. He got to live life.”

She is choosing to remember Soriano not for how she died, but how she lived, saying she deserved so much more.

“Minerliz was sweet. She was goofy … I didn’t get enough time with her, unfortunately,” she said. 

Soriano’s emotional father expressed gratitude to the investigators and attorneys who never gave up in the fight for justice.

“I am grateful from the bottom of my heart as a father,” he said in Spanish.

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