Convict gets extra 10 years

July 29, 2006

BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Legal Affairs Reporter





Alejandro "Flaco" Santiago, 43, has never been charged with the 2004 kidnapping and murder of Chicago cell phone store owner Jesus Colon, 44.

But on Friday, arguments by federal prosecutors that Santiago had a hand in Colon's killing convinced a federal judge to add 10 years to Santiago's sentence in an unrelated drug case.

The 30-year sentence means Santiago will die in prison, said his lawyer, Kent Carlson. He complained that if prosecutors think they can prove his client had a hand in Colon's murder, they should charge him, instead of importing evidence from that case into his drug sentencing.

"Their office hasn't seen fit to charge him. The Cook County state's attorney's office hasn't seen fit to charge him. The problem with their case is they can't prove it, and they know it," Carlson said.

But under rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, federal judges have discretion at sentencing hearings to take into account defendants' character and history.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu played tapes in court of Santiago's fellow gang members recalling how Santiago sat on Colon's waist to hold him down while another gang member snapped Colon's neck. Santiago, annoyed, said, "Oh, man, I forgot they do this" when Colon urinated on Santiago after being killed, according to his colleagues on the tapes.

'A menace to society'



Then Santiago used a bolt-cutter to extract Colon's teeth and cut off his fingertips and threw them in a bottle of anti-freeze to prevent his body from being identified, Bhachu said.

"This defendant is a menace to society and should be taken away from society for a very long time," Judge Robert Gettleman said. "We don't see much worse around here."

Santiago had earlier served 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder when he ordered two juveniles to kill a rival gang member. They fired into a crowd, killing Catholic school social worker Nelson Diaz, who was not a gang member.

Under a law passed by the U.S. Congress, an earlier conviction in a drug case meant Gettleman had to sentence him to at least 20 years in prison.

In 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that judges could not consider evidence untested by juries in determining a defendant's sentence under the federal sentencing guidelines. But then the high court last year ruled that the guidelines were merely "advisory," giving back to judges much broader discretion about what they could consider at sentencing.

The other main culprits in Colon's murder have not yet been charged more than two years after his murder. Santiago and the other gang members demanded a ransom from Colon's family which was paid at the Logan Square L stop, Bhachu said.

apallasch@suntimes.com