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The Case of Fabian Santiago

📻 Episode #423
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Feb 01, 2024

⬥ STILL IMPRISONED

About This Episode

Several shots were fired from an alley toward a group of friends on the night of January 16, 1993, in Chicago, IL. One person was fatally shot and two others were wounded. Chicago detectives brought 16-year-old Fabian Santiago in for questioning and interrogated him for hours. The detectives claimed that Fabian admitted to the shooting,…

Case status as carried in this site's original 2026 profiles. Independent record verification is rolling out episode by episode — statuses are being re-checked against court and registry sources and date-stamped as verified.

The Case

Several shots were fired from an alley toward a group of friends on the night of January 16, 1993, in Chicago, IL. One person was fatally shot and two others were wounded. Chicago detectives brought 16-year-old Fabian Santiago in for questioning and interrogated him for hours. The detectives claimed that Fabian admitted to the shooting, but there was no written or electronic record of this statement. Despite no physical evidence tying him to the crime, Fabian was sentenced to 90 years in prison for the shooting.

https://lavaforgood.com/podcast/155-jason-flom-with-marilyn-mulero/

https://lavaforgood.com/podcast/243-guest-host-patrick-pursley-with-jacques-rivera/

https://www.bonjeanlaw.com/

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In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts

Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.

00:04:28
“Speaker 2: no men who took their lives because of the cold Speaker 2: and stark realities that one has to deal with in Speaker 2: the prison system. Speaker 1: This detective team, Guavara and Halverson, ran a gang unit Speaker 1: that often investigated the activity of Puerto Rican gangs like”
00:17:07
“Speaker 4: and through this prosecutor. Speaker 3: So that is just absurd in my mind. Speaker 1: Other than cross examining Matos and Rivera about the inconsistencies Speaker 1: between their descriptions of the assailants and Fabian, not much Speaker 1: of a defense was mounted at all. Plus the appearance”
00:29:05
“Speaker 2: plus being thrown out there that have resulted from settlements Speaker 2: in these wrongful conviction cases just under Ronaldo Guevara or Speaker 2: his crew. That does not entail the tens of millions Speaker 2: of dollars that the City of Chicago is also paid Speaker 2: in legal expenses to defend against these cases.”

Listen to the Episode

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