'Jupiter Joe' Guilty: New Rochelle 'Street Astronomer' Killed 13-Year-Old Girl, Jury Finds

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Joseph "Jupiter Joe" Martinez, famed for teaching science on the streets of New Rochelle and the Bronx, is now best known for an entirely more sinister reason.

Martinez was found guilty in a notorious 22-year-old cold case, in which a missing 13-year-old girl was found strangled to death in a dumpster in Co-op City.

Minerliz Soriano was reported missing after leaving school — never making it back to her home on Pelham Parkway, in February of 1999. Her body was found bound and wrapped in a plastic bag inside a dumpster on Bartow Avenue, near the Bay Plaza shopping center four days later.

See Also : New Rochelle Man Arrested In 1999 Killing Of 13-Year-Old Girl

"She left school at 2:20 p.m. and never made it home," Capt. John Creegan, the commander of the major crimes unit in the Bronx, told The New York Times in March of 1999.

The crime would go unsolved, but not forgotten by the NYPD for the next two decades.

Police arrested the then 49-year-old Martinez on murder charges in connection with the unsolved homicide investigation. Martinez maintained a public life in the years since the killing, and prior to his arrest in 2021, calling himself "Jupiter Joe."

"Today, a Bronx jury returned a guilty verdict on two counts of second-degree Murder against Joseph Martinez AKA Jupiter Joe, in the killing of 13-year-old Minerliz Soriano, bringing justice to her family after 26 years," Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark said in a statement. "The defendant sexually abused Minerliz and compressed her neck, causing her death. He took her body in a garbage bag and left it in a dumpster in Co-op City, where she was found on February 28, 1999. Bronx 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. I hope this verdict brings some solace to Minerliz's family."

Martinez will be sentenced on Jan 8.