Editing Esteban de Jesús (section)

==Crime, commuted sentence and death==

On November 27, 1980, in what became a famous case in Puerto Rico, after having injected himself with cocaine, de Jesús was involved in a traffic dispute with 17-year-old Roberto Cintron Gonzalez, which ended in de Jesús fatally shooting Gonzalez in the head.<ref name="auto"/> De Jesús was sentenced to life in prison. There, he excelled in another sport, [[baseball]], making the Puerto Rico penal system all star team three times. In 1984, he became a born-again [[Christians|Christian]] and started to turn his life around, becoming a preacher.

In 1985, he learned that his brother Enrique, with whom he had shared needles, had died of AIDS. De Jesús tested positive for the virus, and symptoms began to appear.<ref name="auto"/> After it became public knowledge that de Jesús had acquired [[HIV]] and had become a sufferer of [[AIDS]], governor [[Rafael Hernández Colón]] commuted his sentence.

After returning to spend his last days with his family, de Jesús was visited by many celebrities, including hall of fame baseball player [[Orlando Cepeda]], [[Salsa music]] superstar [[Cheo Feliciano]] and his old nemesis Roberto Durán. Durán hugged and kissed de Jesús and told his daughter to do the same. This event was witnessed by [[José Torres (boxer)|José Torres]] who said he was amazed to see Durán's compassionate gesture as he lifted de Jesús out of his bed and hugged him at a time when so little was known and so much feared about AIDS.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

Esteban de Jesús died one month after being released, at the age of 38.