BRONX MAN SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS TO LIFE IN PRISON IN RANDOM MURDER OF COLLEGE STUDENT IN 2021

 

Second Killer of Saikou Koma Sentenced 

Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Bronx man has been sentenced to 20 years to life years in prison for second-degree Murder for the fatal shooting of a 21-year-old college student. 

District Attorney Clark said, “This defendant senselessly killed a promising young man, who was working hard and trying to better himself by attending community college. This defendant has been held accountable for this horrific crime.” 

District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Jayran Liranzo, 22, of the Grand Concourse, the Bronx, was sentenced on June 25, 2025 by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Audrey Stone to 20 years to life in prison for second-degree Murder, 15 years for Attempted Murder in the second-degree with five years post release supervision, and three and a half years for seconddegree Criminal Possession of a Weapon, with five years post release supervision. These sentences are to run concurrently. 

Liranzo and co-defendant Samson Walston, 26, were found guilty by a jury of seconddegree Murder, Attempted Murder in the second-degree and second-degree Criminal Possession of a Weapon on March 31, 2025. Walston will be sentenced at a later date. Steven Mendez pleaded guilty on March 5, 2024, to first-degree Manslaughter. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison, five years post release supervision. 

 According to the facts established at trial, on October 24, 2021, at approximately 8:50 p.m., Liranzo, Mendez and Walston, walked for several blocks looking for someone when they spotted Saikou Koma, 21, and his friend on Ryer Avenue in Fordham Heights. Liranzo along with Mendez fired 10 rounds at Koma and his friend with semi-automatic pistols. Koma was struck in the head and killed. Walston grabbed one of the guns and fled the scene on a bike. There was no connection between Koma and the defendants.

District Attorney Clark thanked NYPD Detectives Sasha Brugal of the Bronx Homicide Squad and Richard Garcia of the 46th Precinct Squad for their work on this case.