A avenue astronomer with a welcoming smile killed a younger Bronx lady who dreamed of the celebrities — and stored the slaying a secret for greater than 20 years, prosecutors mentioned on the accused killer’s chilly case homicide trial.
It took a cutting-edge new DNA method and a detective’s ruse in a diner to disclose Joseph “Jupiter Joe” Martinez because the alleged killer of 13-year-old Minerliz Soriano, Assistant District Legal professional John Miras informed jurors in Bronx Supreme Court docket final week.
“She wished him to point out her the celebrities. As a substitute, he threw her into the dumpster,” Miras mentioned in his opening assertion at Martinez’s trial.
Martinez lived a number of flooring under Minerliz in her Pelham Parkway South house constructing when she disappeared on Feb. 24, 1999. 4 days later, a upkeep employee discovered her stuffed in plastic rubbish baggage in a dumpster behind a video retailer on Bartow Ave. in Co-Op Metropolis.
She had been been strangled.
As detectives struggled to seek out the killer, Martinez, 53, introduced himself an affable grinning astronomy fanatic who gave impromptu classes to youngsters and ran his personal stargazing channel on YouTube. Movies present him interviewing fellow star-watchers, together with younger youngsters, chatting with an writer, unboxing telescope gear and attending a pageant to look at a 2017 eclipse.
“I taught myself tips on how to use a telescope. Now, I do it wherever I can within the metropolis. Typically, I even train classes alongside the best way,” he says in a single video. “Anybody who’s passing by, coming dwelling from work, heading out for a drink, no matter it’s, they will cease by and have a look.”
However Minerliz’s homicide lurked beneath the floor of Martinez’s starlit persona, prosecutors allege.
“Minerliz had a particular curiosity. Minerliz favored telescopes and comets and the planets and the celebrities,” Miras mentioned. She informed her shut buddy, Kimberly Ortiz, all about how she’d be the primary Latina astronaut from the Bronx.
“And Kimberly mentioned, ‘They don’t make individuals such as you and me astronauts.’ And Minerliz mentioned, ‘You say what you need. I’m going to be an astronaut,’” Miras informed the jury.
Minerliz wished a telescope for her thirteenth birthday on Jan. 17, 1999, however her birthday got here and went and he or she didn’t get her telescope, the prosecutor mentioned.
Then 5 weeks later, on Feb. 24, 1999, she vanished. Kimberly stayed late for an after-school program at their faculty, Intermediate Faculty 135 in Bronxdale, however Minerliz determined to go dwelling. She by no means made it again.
“Kimberly by no means noticed her once more,” Miras mentioned. “Minerliz was reported lacking that night and the investigation started. What occurred to this little lady? And 4 days later, the solutions began to return.”
On the time, nothing made Martinez stand out from anybody else in Minerliz’s constructing.
Detectives combed by way of the younger sufferer’s life and routine however discovered nothing that might cause them to a killer. Each faculty day, she’d take a metropolis bus dwelling from faculty, then wait exterior for her 7-year-old sister Nadia’s bus to reach. She would then stroll upstairs along with her youthful sister to their house.
The studious teenager had no boyfriend and no historical past of working away from dwelling.
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Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Every day Information Joseph Martinez (aka “Jupiter Joe”) is pictured throughout his arraignment at Bronx Supreme Felony Court docket on Nov. 30, 2021. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Every day Information)
Detectives had DNA from the scene that helped get rid of different individuals of curiosity.
“She’s discovered wrapped in a fetal place, all wrapped up in a ball with one thing known as gaffer’s tape wrapped round her, positioned in quite a few rubbish baggage and thrown proper right into a dumpster,“ Miras mentioned. “The killer… he left his signature on Minerliz. Her physique’s taken to the morgue and on her sweatshirt are two drops of semen.”
However the killer remained a thriller for 22 years, till investigators ran a familial DNA search — a method which gained prominence nationwide after it helped unmask the Golden State Killer in 2018.
Martinez’s deceased father, whose DNA was in a database after a sexual abuse arrest, was a partial match.
And that led detectives to think about Martinez, and his shared curiosity in astronomy, Miras mentioned.
One detective reached out to Martinez, posing as a mother who was in search of an astronomy lesson for her daughter, they usually arrange a gathering at a diner in New Rochelle, N.Y., the place Martinez was then residing. Afterwards investigators snagged a straw Martinez used, examined it for DNA, and matched it to the semen on Minerliz’s shirt.
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Josephine Stratman for New York Every day Information Joseph Martinez is pictured in police custody leaving the NYPD’s forty ninth Precinct stationhouse after his arrest on Nov. 29, 2021. (Josephine Stratman for New York Every day Information)
Martinez denies being the killer his protection lawyer mentioned the DNA on the teenager’s sweatshirt won’t have been semen.
“They won’t be able to say whether or not it’s semen, whether or not it’s saliva, whether or not it’s mucus, whether or not it’s perspiration,” protection lawyer Troy Smith mentioned throughout his opening statements. “Why is that necessary? As a result of when individuals reside in an house constructing, after they’re with one another they usually’re within the elevator they usually see one another, after all, the DNA, bodily fluids, saliva, perspiration — excessive chance of transference.”
Minerliz bought vacation sweet within the house constructing and was regularly unsupervised, Smith informed jurors.
“Numerous neighbors, they see her within the foyer of the constructing,” he mentioned. “They see her late at night time exterior, with out parental supervision. She’s at all times doing laundry by herself. Neighbor after neighbor, a lot of them say the identical factor.”
Smith additionally hinted at an inappropriate relationship between Minerliz and her stepfather, telling the jurors that the teenager wrote in a e-mail, “If I had been solely 30 years older, you’ll be my man.”
“The proof will present that she was a troubled child that engaged in harmful life conduct,” Smith mentioned. “She tried to commit suicide. She cried out for assist. She engaged in conduct that put her in danger.”
The trial continues on Monday.
