Metro

By Elizabeth Rosner and Max Jaeger

June 27, 2018 | 3:27pm

The defense attorney for a gangbanger accused of stabbing an innocent Bronx teen to death bizarrely compared an injury his client received around the time of the attack to the wounds of Christ.

Court-appointed defense attorney Steven Kaiser claimed during a Bronx Criminal Court arraignment Wednesday that his client, Elvin Garcia — who is accused of repeatedly knifing 15-year-old Lesandro Guzman-Feliz to death — suffered a wound through his left hand “a la stigmata” before he attacked the teen Wednesday night, and claimed the wound would play into Garcia’s defense.

Catholics believe stigmata is the miraculous appearance of wounds similar to those suffered by Jesus Christ during the Crucifixion — usually considered a sign of saint-like piety.

The lawyer also whined that the cut was made worse by rough treatment by the NYPD after Garcia’s arrest.

Garcia is one of at least five suspected Trinitarios gang members accused of hacking Guzman-Feliz — an aspiring NYPD detective — with knives and a machete outside a Bronx bodega last Wednesday. Police sources say the thugs mistook Guzman-Feliz for another kid who appeared in a sex video with a gang member’s sister.

In grisly surveillance video of the butchering, Garcia can be seen “wearing a mask … holding a knife and repeatedly making stabbing motions in the direction of the victim — eight in total,” Assistant District Attorney Morgan Dolan said during the arraignment. “But there could be some more that are off screen on video.”

The video shows the masked man gripping the victim with his left hand while slashing at him with his right.

Kaiser said he has not seen the video.

Wearing a blue hospital gown over a red plaid shirt, Garcia entered a plea of not guilty Wednesday. He is being charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon, police have said.

Eight men in total have been arrested in the case. Police sources have said they are members of the notorious Trinitarios street gang.

Kevin Alvarez, 19, of the Bronx, was named as one of the alleged killers. He entered a plea of not guilty to murder, manslaughter gang assault and assault during an arraignment Monday night.

Police sources say Alvarez was the man seen on surveillance video dragging Guzman-Feliz from the Zesarina Deli at East 183rd Street and Bathgate Avenue.

Six other suspects arrested in Paterson, New Jersey, on Sunday were ordered extradited to New York on Tuesday and were awaiting arraignment Wednesday.

Additional reporting by Larry Celona