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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Murder |
Sentence: |
55 years |
Years Imprisoned: |
23 |
Year Crime: |
1993 |
Year Convicted: |
1994 |
Year Cleared: |
2016 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Illinois |
County or Region of Crime: |
Cook |
City of Crime: |
Chicago |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Jose Montanez and Armando Serrano were codefendants wrongly convicted in 1994 of the murder of Rodrigo Vargas in Chicago, Illinois on February 5, 1993. The prosecutions case was based on the testimony of jailhouse informant Francisco Vicente that Montanez and Serrano confessed to him. There was no eyewitness or physical evidence linking the three defendants to the crime (the third was Jorge Pacheco). The defendants waived their right to a jury trial, and in finding all three defendants guilty the judge remarked, "were it not for the testimony of Vicente, there wouldn't have been much evidence here. His testimony is crucial." However, he later reversed his decision and acquitted Pacheco. Montanez and Serrano were sentenced to 55 years in prison. Ten years after their trial, Vicente completed an affidavit on May 26, 2004 in which he recanted his trial testimony implicating Montanez and Serrano. Vicente swore that his trial testimony was "false in all respects" and he detailed that his testimony was supplied in its entirety by Chicago PD Detective Reynaldo Guevara -- who was the lead investigating officer. Vicente also avered that Guevara threatened him, physically coerced him, and promised leniency that included money and favorable treatment for his pending charges, and in fact after testifying Vicente was sentenced to the mandatory minimum in his case. Vicente also swore that at Guevara's behest he had given false evidence in other cases. Later in 2004 Montanez filed a post-conviction petition seeking a new trial based on the new evidence of Vicente's affidavit, and included sworn statement from at least 10 witnesses that Guevara had abused and coerced them into giving false testimony or committed other forms of police misconduct. In 2005 Serrano filed a post-conviction petition that effectively mirrored Montanez'. The trial judge denied the Cook County State's Attorney's motion to dismiss the petitions, but it wasn't until almost nine years after Montanez filed his petition that an evidentiary hearing was held that began on May 15, 2013. During the hearing Guevara invoked the Fifth Amendment to each question he was asked. When Vicente testified he too invoked the Fifth Amendment out of fear he would be prosecuted for committing perjury during the trial of Montanez and Serrano. During the hearing significant evidence was introduced substantiating Guevara's long-standing behavior of using threats and violence to coerce witnesses -- that even included physically beating witnesses. However, their were 12 witnesses abused by Guevara or who had witnessed him committing misconduct, that the judge refused to allow to testify. The judge also barred the victim's wife, Wilda Vargas, from testifying that Guevara had influenced her trial testimony, and lied to her about evidence in the case. At the close of Montanez and Serrano presenting their evidence, the State made a motion for a directed finding that they had failed to carry their burden to warrant a new trial. Three months later the judge granted the State's motion, ruling that the petitioner's hadn't introduced sufficient new evidence to prove Vicente lied during the trial at Guevara's behest. The judge also intimated the petitioner's would be unable to ever introduce evidence sufficient to warrant a new trial. Montanez and Serrano appealed. On June 7, 2016 the Illinois Court of Appeal, First District, Second Division, reversed the judge's ruling and granted the post-conviction petition, vacating Montanez and Serrano's convictions and ordering a new trial. The Court's ruling stated: "At their joint evidentiary hearing, Montanez and his codefendant Serrano presented profoundly alarming acts of misconduct in the underlying investigation and prosecution, all of which warrant closer scrutiny by appropriate authorities. ... The corroboration of the new evidence and its consistency on key details, properly construed, is compelling. We have before us a recantation from the principal trial witness saying he was coerced by detectives, a partial recantation from the secondary witness (the victim's wife) saying she was misled by investigators, sworn statements from at least 20 individuals claiming that the investigators coerced them in a similar manner, and then the detective under suspicion coming to the hearing and invoking the fifth amendment in response to all of the pointed questions. At this stage in the proceedings, petitioner was required to make out merely a prima facie case that would cause the court to view the "evidence presented at trial in a different light and undercut[ ] the court's confidence in the factual correctness of the guilty verdict." That has clearly occurred here. When all of the postconviction evidence is viewed in a light most favorable to petitioner, the trial court was wrong to say that no contrary ruling could ever stand." ... The final issue in this appeal is that petitioner suggests we should remove the postconviction judge from the case and assign the case to a different judge on remand. Petitioner argues that since the postconviction judge has already ruled that no contrary verdict could ever stand and since the judge has expressed a disregard for the evidence presented, it would be essentially worthless to send the case back to the same judge. We agree. Illinois Supreme Court Rule 366(a)(5) (eff. Feb. 1, 1994) gives a reviewing court, in its discretion, the power to reassign a matter to a new judge on remand. []¶ 43. Petitioner offered up an abundance of evidence to support his claim of actual innocence. The trial court turned a blind eye to much of the evidence and also refused to admit probative, admissible evidence that, when evaluated under the proper standard, is damning. Even where the court gave lip service to the standard it was supposed to apply, the court clearly did not adhere to that standard. The postconviction court gave the impression that it was flatly unwilling to consider the evidence offered by petitioner. See Reyes, 369 Ill. App. 3d at 25. Petitioner would be prejudiced were we not to assign the case to a new judge on remand. Therefore, in the exercise of our discretion under the supreme court rules, we find that the interests of justice would be best and most efficiently served by the case being assigned to a different judge on remand. ... Accordingly, the trial court's judgment is reversed, and its directed finding in favor of the State is vacated." (People v. Montanez, 2016 IL App (1st) 133726 (App Ct of Ill, First Dist, Second Div., 6-7-2016) After 12 years of vigorously opposing Montanez and Serrano's efforts for a new trial, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office did a complete reversal after the appeals court's ruling ordering a new trial before a new judge, and submitted a motion to dismiss the murder charges agaisnt them, which was granted on July 20, 2016. Serrano and Montanez were both subsequently awarded a certificate of innocence in November 2016, and each was awarded compensation of $222,900 by the State of Illinois." |
Conviction Caused By: |
"Perjury by the State's star jailhouse informant witness whose testimony was procured by coercion and the favorable treatment promised by Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara. Guevara fabricated testimony and evidence to implicate suspects in a crime that included diecting witnesses who to pick out of a lineup, and extracting false confessions by beatings and torture. As of November 2019 14 men had their convictions overturned and charges dismissed or acquitted after a retrial due to Guevara's criminal conduct: Juan Johnson in 2004; Jacques Rivera in 2011; Jose Montanez and Armando Serrano in July 2016; Robert Almodovar and William Negron in April 2017; Jose Maysonet in November 2017; Gabriel Solache and Arturo DeLeon-Reyes in December 2017; Thomas Sierra in January 2018; Ariel Gomez in February 2018; Ricardo Rodriguez in March 2018; Robert Bouto in June 2018; and, Geraldo Iglesias in January 2019." |
Innocence Proved By: |
"On June 7, 2016 the Illinois Court of Appeals issued its ruling granting the post-conviction petition of Montanez and Serrano and ordering a new trial, and ordering that on remand their case would be presided over by a new judge because of prejudicial bias by the trial judge. After 12 years of vigorously opposing Montanez and Serrano's efforts for a new trial, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office did a complete reversal after the appeals court's ruling ordering a new trial before a new judge, and submitted a motion to dismiss the murder charges agaisnt them, which was granted by a Cook County judge on July 20, 2016." |
Defendant Aided By: |
"Attorney Russell Ainsworth, a partner with the law firm of Loevy & Loevy." |
Compensation Awarded: |
"$222,900 (State of Illinois, 2017)" |
Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
26 |
Age When Released: |
49 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
Black |
Information Source 1: |
"People v. Montanez, 2016 IL App (1st) 133726, No. 1-13-3726 (Appellate Court of Illinois, First Dist, Second Div., June 7, 2016) (Granting habeas petition vacating convictions and ordering a retrial of Montanez and Serrano.)" |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.leagle.com/decision/In%20ILCO%2020160607178/PEOPLE%20v.%20MONTANEZ |
Information Source 2: |
"After 23 years, judge throws out murder conviction for men allegedly framed by Chicago cop, By Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY, July 20, 2016" |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/20/two-men-allegedly-framed-murder-chicago-cop-released/87343304/ |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org