BRONX, NY (November 15, 2025) \u2014 Joseph Martinez, the New Rochelle resident known as \u201cJupiter Joe\u201d for sidewalk astronomy lessons in the Bronx, was convicted Thursday of murdering 13-year-old Minerliz Soriano in 1999 after a discarded diner straw provided the DNA match to semen on the Bronx girl\u2019s clothes.<\/p>\n
Martinez, 53, who lived on Memorial Highway in New Rochelle at the time of his 2021 arrest, faced trial in Bronx Supreme Court on two counts of second-degree murder. Jurors found him guilty of intentional murder in the course of sexual abuse and felony murder after a month-long proceeding that ended Nov. 14, 2025.<\/p>\n
Soriano vanished Feb. 24, 1999, after leaving Junior High School 127 in the Eastchester section of the Bronx. Her body was found four days later inside a green garbage bag in a Co-op City dumpster, bound with green gaffer\u2019s tape. The medical examiner ruled she had been strangled; semen was recovered from her sweatshirt.<\/p>\n
Detectives reopened the cold case in 2018. Familial DNA searching in 2019 produced a partial match to Martinez\u2019s deceased father in the state database. In late 2021, an NYPD Detective, posing as a mother seeking an astronomy lesson for her daughter, met Martinez at a diner in New Rochelle near his Memorial Highway home. Investigators retrieved the straw Martinez used and matched its DNA to the semen on Soriano\u2019s sweatshirt.<\/p>\n
Martinez was arrested without incident Nov. 30, 2021. Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark praised the verdict, saying, \u201cBronx detectives and my ADAs never gave up in the quest to hold accountable the killer of this beautiful little girl. It was their relentless dedication and compassion, coupled with advanced technology in DNA, that led to the arrest and conviction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sentencing is set for Jan. 8, 2026; Martinez faces up to 25 years to life.<\/p>\n
Joseph Martinez, a 53-year-old former Citibank employee and Bronx community astronomer known as \u201cJupiter Joe,\u201d ran Jupiter Joe\u2019s Sidewalk Astronomy, offering free telescope viewings on Bronx sidewalks and subway platforms to teach kids about stars and planets. Featured on News 12 and YouTube<\/p>\n
This article was drafted with the aid of Grok, an AI tool by xAI, under the direction and editing of Robert Cox to ensure accuracy and adherence to journalistic standards.<\/p>\n
\tDiscover more from Talk of the Sound<\/p>\n
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRONX, NY (November 15, 2025) \u2014 Joseph Martinez, the New Rochelle resident known as \u201cJupiter Joe\u201d for sidewalk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-40855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}