The 17-year-old was arrested in connection with another teenage Bronx murder “full of life,” and was hoping to join the Navy, officers said Friday.
The young teen was charged with murder in the early morning murder on February 2nd, manslaughter, and early morning murder on February 2nd.
The teen was arrested and charged as an adult on February 18th, but his case is underway in the Youth section of the Bronx Supreme Criminal Court.
The judge granted him a supervised release and ordered him to use electronic surveillance devices as the investigation unfolds, prosecutors said.
A spokesperson for the Bronx District Attorney's Office said, “We have sought the defendant to be released supervised by electronic surveillance in order to further investigation and gather more evidence, in order to gather more evidence.”
Others may have been involved in the murder, sources said. The NYPD first released photos of three young men in connection with the fatal shooting.
Investigators initially believed the shooting was due to nausea outside the afterparty, sources said at the time.
Sources say the black sedan was pulled up to the venue, where someone exchanged words with the victims before the fire began.
According to his family, Juan was rushed to a local hospital just to succumb to his injuries, but he was planning to graduate from Bronx Leadership Academy High School last summer and join the Navy.
“I want justice for my son,” Anaeli Pena, the slain teenage mother, told the Post in Spanish on Tuesday.
“They didn't kill the dogs, they killed their son in the future, in a bright future. They don't want his death to be punished.”
“Justice is the only thing I can seek,” she added. “What else can I ask? I want them to pay for what they did to my son. They didn't kill the dog. They killed a boy full of life. They killed him, and they also killed me alive.”
Juan had two sisters and a brother, living with his mother at home.
According to his aunt Shelly Olivo, 35, who is a Dominican author, he was not a troublemaker and had no enemies.
Olivo recalls the moment her nephew visited her just three days before his tragic death.
She remembered what her nephew told her. “Tia, I'm fine, I'm going to the Navy, I'm happy. I've just taken the exam.”
Olivo told him, “It's the best thing you can do, and I'm proud of you and I know you'll become a great soldier and hero.”
