A homeless man with schizophrenia was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for bludgeoning four other homeless men to death in Chinatown, a judge ruled Thursday.
A Manhattan jury convicted Randy Santos of first-degree murder and other charges earlier this year, following less than a day of deliberations. He used a heavy metal pole to kill Anthony Manson, Florencio Moran Camano, Chuen Kok and Nazario Abdelardo Vásquez Villegas, while they were sleeping outside in Chinatown in 2019, jurors found. Two other men he attacked in Chinatown and Chelsea survived their injuries.
Santos’ defense attorneys argued at trial that he should not be held criminally responsible for the killings, because he has severe mental illness and did not understand that what he was doing was wrong. They said a voice in Santos’s head commanded him to kill 40 people, or else he would be killed himself.
Prosecutors told jurors he did know what he was doing, and showed surveillance footage of Santos glancing around and waiting for a witness to pass before carrying out his attack. They argued at trial that Santos should be held accountable for targeting vulnerable strangers.
At a sentencing hearing Thursday morning, Senior Trial Counsel Alfred Peterson said the facts of the case "cannot be more tragic.” He struggled to deliver his statement to the judge, frequently pausing to collect himself.
“There are no victim impact statements here today,” he said. “There’s nobody here to tell this court about their lives and how their absence is a loss. But I’m certain that this court and our city understands the value of every life and the gift of life.”
Peterson said he was also “truly sad” for Santos, who he said “clearly has his own challenges in life, much like the victims in this case.”
“This case is a study in how the life of a young man can go off track so horribly,” he said. “One can only hope that lessons learned from People v. Randy Santos can help bring about some understanding of the effects of homelessness, narcotics abuse and mental illness, such that tragedies such as this can be prevented in the future.”
The prosecutor asked Justice Laura Ward to sentence Santos to 50 years to life.
Defense attorneys requested a sentence of 20 years to life, which they said would still result in a “very long time” in prison but still give Santos motivation to improve himself while incarcerated.
Legal Aid Society attorney Arnold Levine said Santos wants to use his time in prison to take English classes and learn a trade. He asked for a sentence that would give Santos a meaningful chance to spend time with his family and see his young children outside of prison, if the parole board found he had followed through on his promises.
“It gives him hope. It gives him goals,” Levine said. “It gives him something to strive for.”
The defense attorney said his client is a “different person” when he’s on medication. He said Santos used to assault people on Rikers Island but has not gotten into a single fight since he received treatment at a psychiatric hospital several years ago.
“He is not incorrigible,” Levine said. “He is not beyond redemption.”
In his own short statement to the judge, Santos said he was “very sorry” for what he did.
“I apologize to the people for what I did,” he said. “I wish it never happened.”
Santos said he knew he was going to prison for a long time.
“I want to be somebody when I get out of the jail,” he said.
Ward said the case brought together “three tragedies of this city” that often come up in the violent cases she oversees: homelessness, substance abuse and mental illness. In her sentencing decision, she said, she tried to balance the need for rehabilitation and retribution.
“But I have a difficult time getting past the fact that Mr. Santos targeted the most vulnerable people in our society, people who were doing nothing but sleeping on the street and homeless, she said. “I watched the videos.”
She wished Santos good luck. Outside the courtroom, one of his family members cried and pulled a hood over her head.
Defense attorneys Levine and Marnie Zien said in a statement afterward that they plan to appeal Santos’ sentence.
“What happened was tragic,” they said. “But the Randy who was sentenced today bears little resemblance by virtually any measure to the man who committed those crimes in 2019. He has gained insight into his mental illness and has learned to manage his disease.”
This story has bene updated to correct the names of two of the people Santos killed. They are Florencio Moran Camano and Nazario Abdelardo Vásquez Villegas.
