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Juan Carlos Portieles used to sit behind the decks of Miami nightclubs like Space as DJ Seasunz. Now, for the rest of his life, he’ll sit behind bars.
A jury sentenced Portieles today to life in prison for the 2009 murder of his 18-year-old girlfriend, Jaclyn Torrealba.
Portieles, 32, specialized in promoting and playing music at all-ages parties. He met Torrealba when she was just 16. The two began dating, but things turned deadly the night of October 9, 2009. The couple got into a fight while Portieles’s car was pulled over on the side of the road. It turned physical, and he fatally strangled Torrealba.
Portieles then drove around to friends’ homes with her body in his car. He told them what he had done, and he eventually turned himself in at a police station in Doral.
After his trial began Thursday, a jury sent down a guilty verdict this afternoon. Unless he appeals, Portieles will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
“He will pay for what he’s done,” Torrealba’s mother told CBS Miami after the verdict was read.
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