WEBVTT - #423 Jason Flom with Fabian Santiago 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.240 Throughout the eighties and nineties, gang violence plagued the Humboldt 0:00:06.240 --> 0:00:10.319 Park area of Chicago, and on January sixteenth, nineteen ninety three, 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:13.320 members of the Spanish Cobras fired upon three members of 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:16.919 the Latin Kings, killing one young man and injuring another. 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:19.840 A passer by in a vehicle was also struck by 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:23.840 a stray bullet. A confidential informants tip naming sixteen year 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:27.040 old Fabian Santiago, allegedly made its way through a few 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:31.120 detectives before reaching the lead detective on the case, Ernest Halferson. 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.960 When the police arrested Fabian, they also claimed to have 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:39.360 found a gun in Fabian's bedroom. Then two eye witnesses, 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:43.320 including one of the surviving victims, identified Fabian from a lineup, 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:48.239 even though the witness's initial descriptions varied wildly from Fabian, 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:51.040 who was also not a member of the Spanish Cobras. 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:53.519 It was going to take a whole lot more to 0:00:53.600 --> 0:01:10.120 outweigh the state's case. But this is wrongful conviction. Welcome 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:13.880 back to wrongful conviction. And we're here today with a 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:18.520 story that has so much corruption, and I'll call it what, 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:22.320 it's pure evil. The miracle is that the man himself 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:27.840 who was victimized by these horrible detectives and others, is 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:31.560 that the fact that he's still alive. Fabian Santiago, welcome 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:32.440 to wrongful conviction. 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.240 Thank you very much for having me and with him. 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:39.640 Ashley Cohen is a partner at Bungin Law Group, and 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:45.600 she and her partner are responsible for justice having been 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:49.480 not denied, delayed horribly, but not denied after all these years. 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:50.400 So Ashley, thank. 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.559 You for being here, Thanks for having me Jason, and. 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:56.760 Let's get right into it. This crime is a horrible 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:00.200 crime with real victims. But this was back in in 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.520 an era when the Humble Park area of Chicago was 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:07.040 riddled with violence. So it was a horrible crime, but 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:09.400 also enforcing not a crime that you wouldn't hear about 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:10.560 fairly regularly. 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:14.320 Well for anyone who's aware of Humble Park. It's a 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:18.040 world of difference today than what it previously was. It 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.760 was the height of the crack epidemic, utterly gang and 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:25.040 drug infested. Many murders did not even make the news 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:27.919 at that time. It wasn't a place for anyone to live, 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.279 let alone for a kid to grow up. I remember 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:33.960 I would look down and broad daylight to the corner 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:37.200 of my block, and I would see dozens of gang 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:41.720 members women prostituted themselves in open air drug markets. This 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:44.040 is what I grew up to. In fact, early on 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.160 I couldn't have been more than ten years old. There 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.000 was a rival gang member who was on a bike 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:53.720 driving down my street and the gang members that lived 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.720 in my neighborhood spotted him and chased him down and 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:57.680 blew his brains out. 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:03.000 That was Humble Park, terrifying story. And there are countless 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:06.760 murders that weren't solved, and then there were countless others 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:10.760 that were listed as solved that were actually not solved 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:12.880 at all, like the one we're about to talk about. 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.320 But usually we start by telling what was your life 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:18.800 like before this happened. You were really just a child. 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:21.639 I was four days and attorney sixteen years old when 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:22.480 I was framed for murder. 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:26.600 Previously, we've covered cases from this year in Humboldt Park, 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:30.400 Marilyn Malaro and Jacques Rivera, and we'll have their stories 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:33.760 linked in the bio, both of whom were also victims 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:38.000 of the same notorious detectives, Ernest Halverson and Ronaldo Guevera. 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.760 Make no mistake about it, Detective Halverson Guevara in this 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:47.160 group of rogue detectives functioned as nothing less than a 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:50.120 criminal organization, not out of a crack house, not out 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:53.040 of a gang infested neighborhood, out of the Area five 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:53.880 police precinct. 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.040 And let us not forget that then, in case you 0:03:57.080 --> 0:04:02.040 think there's any hyperbole here, since the nineteen eighties, over 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:06.880 one hundred cases proven in which Chicago police officers fabricated 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:10.160 false evidence and or suppressed exculpatory evidence in order to 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:15.120 directly cause the convictions of innocent people for serious violent 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:16.400 crimes that they didn't commitment. Ye. 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.359 Yes, and I think it needs to be emphasized the 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:21.400 fact that these are just the cases that have come 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:24.240 to light. There have been men who have died in 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:28.520 prison because of cases like this, irreparably damaged. I have 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:32.640 no men who took their lives because of the cold 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.159 and stark realities that one has to deal with in 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:36.040 the prison system. 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:40.799 This detective team, Guavara and Halverson, ran a gang unit 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:44.520 that often investigated the activity of Puerto Rican gangs like 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:48.320 the Latin Kings, the Latin Disciples, the Spanish Cobra is 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.000 just to day a few. But what is also clear 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:53.719 is that there are varying degrees to which the residents 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:56.640 of humbold Park were actually even involved in gang activity, 0:04:56.880 --> 0:04:59.560 if at all. Now, Fabian lived in an area of 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.800 control by the Latin Disciples. 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:03.360 And I'm sure Fabian could speak to this more than 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:06.839 I can. But during this time period, if you lived 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:10.360 on a certain block, you were associated with a certain gang. 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:12.839 It didn't matter if you actually were in a gang, 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.120 if you ever were initiated. Fabian didn't have a history 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.240 of violent there was nothing in his record, but the 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.120 area where he lived and who he hung around with, 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.719 all of a sudden he is part of the specific gang. 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:28.160 There was stipulation that I was associated with the Latin Disciples, 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.360 and that was not even the organization that had carried 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:36.080 out this homicide, which was according to these police reports, 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:37.600 the Spanish Cobras. 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:40.360 And the incident at the crux of Fabian's wrongful conviction 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:42.920 appears to have been a gang hit on the Latin Kings, 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:45.360 which happened on January sixteenth, nineteen ninety three. 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:50.920 Three individuals, William Stewart, John Meatos and Pedro Muriel were 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:53.760 walking home from a liquor store in Humble Park and 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:57.280 guns were fired in their direction. One of the offenders 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.920 yelled King killer and Cobra Love before basically pulling out 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:03.840 a handgun and shooting it multiple times in the direction 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:07.840 of the victims. William Stewart died as a result of 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:11.880 the gunshot wounds, Muriel suffered a gunshot wound that hospitalized 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:17.360 him for six weeks, and Marcelia Hernandez, she was driving 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:20.520 by in a vehicle, had sustained minor injuries as well. 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:25.000 The offenders fled down an alley, and so there's a death, 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:29.600 there's another attempt murder, and there's another individual who is injured. 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:30.960 And there were a. 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:35.000 Ton of witnesses, several of whom could not make identifications, 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.680 could not give much of any information about the shooters. 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:39.800 But there were these. 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:44.800 Two individuals, Matos and Rivera, who ultimately were the ones 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:51.000 who gave a description and eventually allegedly identified Fabian in 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:54.320 lineups and testified a trial. 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:57.960 Matos, a Latin King, was one of the targets. Rivera 0:06:58.160 --> 0:06:59.960 was a gang member as well, so you can easily 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.640 imagine that they would have been easy for the police 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:06.880 to coerce. However, Marcella Hernandez, the driving passer by caught 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:09.480 in the gunfire, and her younger sister Lrena were able 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.560 to give descriptions as well, and while the age description 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.960 for the primary shooter varied from late teens to mid twenties, 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:19.800 all the witnesses agreed that he was white, Hispanic, about 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:22.600 five ten, one hundred and eighty pounds, either a mustache 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:25.120 or a beard, and the accomplice was described as a 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.560 mid twenties Hispanic male about six feet tall and two 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:30.000 hundred pounds. 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:32.560 And at the time I was only approximately five foot 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:36.720 three or four one hundred pounds. I was sixteen years old. 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:39.280 The shooter who was described as a left handed shooter, 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:41.760 I've been right handed all my life, so in no way, 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.640 shape or form did they resemble my description. 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:47.640 Another thing that makes no sense about this case is 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:51.320 the fact that the shooter yelled out Cobra loved King Killer, 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:55.840 basically proclaiming his affiliation with the Spanish Cobras and the 0:07:55.880 --> 0:08:00.679 intended victims of Latin kings. Meanwhile, as we mentioned, Fabian 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:04.320 lived in Latin Disciple territory. But Fabian was drawn into 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:07.560 this mess when Detective Ernest Halverson alleged that he received 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:10.040 a tip from another detective, Bill Dorsh. 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:14.480 What happens is Halverson says that he was told by 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:18.280 Bill Dorsch that Dorsch received a tip from another officer 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.360 who said an informant told him that he heard Fabian 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:25.280 ragging about shooting some kings and that the gun used 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:27.000 and the shooting was in Fabian's house. 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:29.840 They came pounding at the door and I was taking 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:31.320 immediately into custody. 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:33.600 And he's sixteen years old. 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:36.800 He doesn't have a parent, he doesn't have a lawyer, 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:41.040 and he's placed in an interrogation room at Area five. 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:44.240 My grandmother at the time is whom I was staying with. 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:47.040 She was my legal guardian. She arrived at the police 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:50.080 station with an aunt of mine, Alberta Perez, and she 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:53.560 demanded to see me. She made it abundantly clear that 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:57.000 she wanted an attorney president and to be there as well. 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:01.960 My aunt translated for her and informed them that they 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:05.360 were prohibited from seeing me at that time because of 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.200 our lineups being conducted, that he would call them back. 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:09.920 They never called them. 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:12.520 So they put Fabian in a lineup for the witnesses. 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:16.840 Matos Rivera as well as Marcella and Lorena Hernandez, all 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.119 of whom were between the ages of fourteen and seventeen. 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:24.599 And we've developed significant evidence that shows that there was 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:29.040 a pattern where these Area five detectives investigating these cases 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:34.680 would usually prey on the younger victim and or witnesses 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.160 officers like Wavara and officers like Halverson, who would tell 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.000 them who to pick out in a lineup. In fact, 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:45.600 Dorshe in another case, testifies that he saw Guavara do 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:49.640 this in a lineup where Guavara basically said pick out 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:52.480 that guy, that's the one who did it, and Dorsch 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:54.600 was like, what are you doing. You're not allowed to 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:56.720 tell somebody who to pick out in a lineup. 0:09:57.000 --> 0:09:59.040 During the lineup, I was the only one that was 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:02.280 made to stand up and yell out cober Love King 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:05.319 Killer the only one. And no one in that lineup 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.640 resembled me. Everyone was an adult taller older than me. 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:12.560 And even with that, you had the two women that 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:15.680 were driving by in the motor vehicle. They told the 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.160 detectives we did not see him do anything. We do 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:22.000 not want to identify someone who was not involved. We 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:25.400 don't want someone who's innocent going to prison and the 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:28.319 police completely blew up on them, telling her this is 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:30.120 the guy who did it. All you need to do 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:30.920 is point them out. 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:35.800 So this whole concept of these young kids picking out 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:39.000 individuals in a lineup. Although it seems, oh, you have 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:43.560 two eyewitnesses who are identifying Fabian as the shooter, it's 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:45.280 usually bogus. 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:49.439 But unfortunately this information did not come to light until 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:52.800 Fabian had already spent decades in prison. So after this 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:57.280 pretty much directed identification from Matos and Rivera at Area five, 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:01.600 Fabian was returned to the interrogation room, where the misconduct continued. 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:05.280 Halverson tells Fabian that Fabian needed to sign a consent 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:07.920 to search his house so that he can protect his 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:11.079 personal property, which may be destroyed once they go back 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:12.120 there and search his house. 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:14.920 They're yelling and screaming at me, telling me to sign. 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:18.679 I had requested the presence of counsel my grandmother. They 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:20.320 weren't trying to hear any of that. They were doing 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:22.760 everything they could to terrorize and just to get me 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.200 to relent. They will, look, at least, you're going to 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:27.800 be reimbursed if your stuff is destroyed, because we are 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.640 going to destroy your stuff, and I ultimately ended up 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:33.320 signing that form. The thing was later on, I came 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:36.199 to understand, according to my aunt, that as soon as 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:39.240 I was taken into custody, these detectives were already tearing 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:43.719 up my home. So irregardless whether they had obtained a 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:47.120 written consent for me or not, they had already been 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:51.560 conducting the search, so this was all just simply to 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:52.600 cover their asses. 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:56.640 Fabian was initially charged with illegal possession of a firearm, 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.640 so outside the presence of counsel or a guardian, they 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:02.840 got mission to find the gun that they originally arrested 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:06.480 him for. With this trickery to obtain the consent for 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:09.360 a search, one can only surmise that they did not 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:11.800 have the probable cause to get a judge to sign 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:13.080 off on a search warrant. 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:17.040 It was further solidified that they were planting this firearm 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:21.200 when William Dorsch came forward and attested I had not 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.920 produced an informant probable cause, and if I had gathered 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:28.960 this evidence, I would have come myself to have arrested you. 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:32.439 I would not have involved these detectives because I had 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:34.679 known even at that time that they were so. 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:38.280 Corrupt again, this is information that didn't come to light 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:41.960 until Fabian had already spent almost thirty years in prison. 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:44.839 And we'll come back to these revelations from William Dorritsch 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:47.679 a bit later. So back to the interrogation room, they 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:51.079 had gotten the search consent signed, and then shortly after 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:54.640 Detective Halverson returned with this gun and pointed it in 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:59.360 Fabian's face, saying, quote, now you know how it feels. 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:02.119 This is the gun that you had unquote. 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:05.280 And when he pointed it to my head, I insisted 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.000 that the firearm was at mine, that I wasn't involved 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:09.319 he assaulted me. 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:13.280 So no surprise that you ultimately relented and just said, 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:15.720 I'll tell you what you want to hear. So they 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:17.439 now had a false confession. 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:20.719 Well, the only thing that came in at trial was 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:28.160 that Fabian made alleged oral statements to Halverson. So even 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:31.480 though Fabian had a gun pointed at him, was beaten 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:36.880 up by Halverson, he still would not give a written 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:38.960 statement to the state's attorney. 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:42.640 I never signed off on any confession and it was 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:44.400 not recorded. 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:59.480 To recap. Detective Halverson and his cohorts had an alleged, 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:03.920 unrecord ordered oral confession the directed identification from Matos and 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:07.680 Rivera and this gun that was almost certainly planted that 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:10.840 they claimed magic bullets founded the scene. At this time, 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:14.200 Fabian's grandmother sold her home to post his bond and 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:17.720 help him out a defense. Yet somehow Fabian had even 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:20.160 more dire problems than this case. 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:24.760 Back at this time, the gangs ruled these neighborhoods with 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:29.720 an iron fist. And because I was implicated in this crime, 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.920 the laon Kings had placed a contract hit out on me, 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:36.040 and they tried to gun me down in a car chase, 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.920 and they left a note on my grandmother's house saying 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:40.720 we know where you live. 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:46.240 So he's again wrongly accused, wrongly accused by the gangs, 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:48.160 and he's wrongly accused by the officers. 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.600 There is no rationalizing, there is no talking it out. 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.720 Not only my own health and safety, but my families 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:56.920 was at risk. And I left. 0:14:57.720 --> 0:14:59.440 So where the hell did you go? Where is a 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:03.200 sixteen years kid with no resources, with everybody looking for them, 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:05.000 Where the hell do you go and hide? 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.040 I left the state of all noise. I just bounced around. 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:12.160 I wasn't in one single place for too long. Whether 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:15.480 it was a friend or finding a hotel room or 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.240 an apartment, whatever the case may have been. Unfortunately, I 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:22.440 had to utilize whatever methods were necessary for me to 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:26.760 survive selling drugs or just working a part time gig 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:27.800 or whatever have you. 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:32.000 Okay, so then finally you get tried in absentia. We've 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:34.960 literally never had that happen on the show. Ashley, give 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.760 us the cliff notes of this ridiculous trial. 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:42.120 Okay, So Fabian has a private attorney. He goes to 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:45.120 trial before a judge by the name of Judge Tuman, 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:48.960 who was notoriously known for being very hard on juveniles. 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:53.280 They show up for trial, Judge says, where's mister Santiago 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:56.440 and his attorney says, I don't know, can we postpone? 0:15:56.880 --> 0:15:58.600 And Judge says, well, he was told to be here 0:15:58.640 --> 0:15:59.240 at ten am. 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:03.000 We're going for Basically, the evidence at trial is these 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:07.600 two eyewitnesses who identify him in the lineup, which we 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:12.840 know were bogus, and Halverson testifies that he recovered a 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:17.840 gun in Fabian's home which was tested and the ballistics 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:19.480 matched the gun that. 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:20.960 Was used in the shooting. 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:26.840 And there is a state's attorney who provides testimony of 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:34.200 alleged oral inculpatory statements. He testifies that Fabian admitted to 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:39.480 participating in the shooting, and that's what he's convicted on, which, 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.840 if you're looking at it objectively, seems kind of alike 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:44.760 a lot of evidence. The problem is all of it 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:46.800 was built on a lie and none of it is 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:50.720 actually legitimate. I mean, I think the state's attorney, what 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:53.480 he did at this time is almost as appalling as 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:55.920 what the officers did. I mean, they knew what was 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.440 going on behind closed doors. There was no court reporter present, 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:03.720 there was no handwritten statement, there was nothing memorialized on paper. 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:07.480 It was just oral statements that come in through Halverson 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:09.000 and through this prosecutor. 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:11.919 So that is just absurd in my mind. 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:15.679 Other than cross examining Matos and Rivera about the inconsistencies 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.800 between their descriptions of the assailants and Fabian, not much 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.560 of a defense was mounted at all. Plus the appearance 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:25.400 of going on the lamb probably was not helpful. So 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:29.240 the jury reached a predictable conclusion, and on May eighteenth, 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:33.480 nineteen ninety four, Fabian was convicted of murder, attempted murder, 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:37.320 as well as related firearms charges and sentenced to ninety 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:40.840 years news that he received while he was still on 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:42.359 the run for his very life. 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:46.560 It was crushing and as horrific as it was for 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:49.840 that type of sentence to have been handed down, my 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:54.080 only focus was on staying away from Chicago to stay alive. 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.400 Over a year and a half later, I was depleted 0:17:57.440 --> 0:17:59.680 of funds and I came back to Chicago trying to 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:03.119 get to assistance, and as I was walking the street, 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:05.960 I don't know if they knew who I was or 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.119 they were just stopping me, and ultimately I was brought 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:10.080 back into custody. 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:15.400 Now Fabian was not only made to serve this insane sentence, 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:18.600 but he was also being tried for jumping bail, so 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:22.160 ten more years were added on to this ninety year sentence. 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:25.359 Ten years also for a bail jumping is absurd. That 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:27.359 was a judge being pissed to sell that he didn't 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:28.240 show up the trial. 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:31.600 I had a public defender. She didn't ask me why 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:34.879 I was unable to attend my trial. She could care less. 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:39.080 She simply was yelling and telling me, look, the judge 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:41.639 is pissed off. You need to take this plea. I 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.320 figured that it made little of any difference, and I 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:46.960 accepted it for a total of a one hundred year 0:18:46.960 --> 0:19:00.280 prison sentence. Because of the incredible amount of time that 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:04.800 I was incarcerated. I was in every single maximum state 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:10.399 penitentiary in Illinois several times over. It was very violent 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:13.480 and you had to defend yourself. There was men who 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:16.560 were stabbed up, murdered. In fact, I know of one 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:20.080 incident where a cellmate got involved in a physical confrontation 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:24.000 with his cellmate and he tore his eyeballs out. He's 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:28.119 blind and he threw his eyes on the gallery. The 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:32.680 carnage was incredible. I knew men who have taken their 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:36.280 lives for far less than what I had endured, simply 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:38.439 because they didn't want to deal with how cold and 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:42.760 stark that reality was. The United States government propagates this 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:47.919 belief that China Russia engaged in human rights abuses. People 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:51.040 in this country are tortured every day in the prison system. 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:54.359 So getting Fabian out of that horrible situation could not 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:57.800 have been more urgent. But the appeals process moved very slowly. 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:01.720 I went through the core process, ineffective assistance of counsel, 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:05.920 unlawful searces and seizures. I got nowhere very quick. 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:09.280 And one thing that was crazy is his pellet attorney. 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:12.760 She didn't raise the issue of him being tried in abstentia. 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:16.359 So when you don't raise the issue on direct appeal, 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:19.480 you ultimately waive it because it's not preserved. 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:21.119 I mean, I don't know how you don't raise that. 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:25.040 While I was in prison, I immersed myself in study 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:29.639 and litigation. I pursued numerous litigations against the Illinois Department 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:33.160 of Corrections, civil litigations. From these lawsuits that I would 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:36.040 succeed in, I was able to pay for my own lawyers, 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.040 and every one of these attorneys did nothing but sell 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:42.040 me a pipe dream and take my money, and worst 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.520 of all, cause even further years, if not decades, of 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:49.919 my life being wasted away in prison. Ultimately, I wrote 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:54.719 Jennifer bon Jing requesting legal representation, and later on she 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:58.280 had seen me on Zoom and she had bear witness 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.520 personally to my outlage about my innocence. 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:04.720 During COVID, a lot of the hearings began to take 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:07.240 place on zoom, and when you had the zoom meeting 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:09.480 for the judge in front of whom you had the case, 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:12.119 he would often end up listening in on the proceedings 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:14.159 for four years, you know, while you're waiting for yours 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:16.520 to come up. And as a result of that, Ashley's 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:20.040 partner Jennifer bon Jean overheard Fabian's arguments. 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:23.040 It was around Halloween twenty twenty, and I remember her 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:26.000 calling me and she was like, I just watched the 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:30.880 craziest thing on zoom in Judge Kenworthy. This guy, he's 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:35.400 a Halberson case and he is in on a legal sentence, 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:37.760 was advocating for himself. 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:40.760 I was arguing, basically before the court, look, I'm actually 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:43.800 innocent of these crimes. However, it would make a flying 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:45.840 fuck of a difference to me if I were guilty 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:48.119 of everything I've done. The prison time of three or 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:51.399 four men I knew, men whom had been given twenty 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:54.480 years for murders. They did ten years, and they went home. 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:56.960 And here I was riding away from the age of 0:21:57.000 --> 0:21:59.960 a sixteen year old kid, completely innocent of the charges, 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:02.200 and I had lost almost thirty years already. 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:06.040 By this time, a slew of landmarks gotis rulings had 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:10.800 made mandatory juvenile sentencing statutes unconstitutional, so Ashley and Jennifer 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:15.320 were able to split Fabian's actual innocence claim from his resentencing, 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:17.160 and they tackled that first. 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:20.600 With the resentencing, I would have been required to have 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:24.920 completed a prison sentence of seventeen years, so I had 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:28.679 completed that sentence by over a decade, which required my 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:30.560 immediate discharge from custody. 0:22:31.040 --> 0:22:34.840 The resentencing hearing was January seventh, twenty twenty two. On 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:38.080 January twelfth, twenty twenty two, He's released. 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:41.360