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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
First Degree Murder and Kidnapping |
Sentence: |
Life Imprisonment without possibility of parole |
Years Imprisoned: |
19.7 |
Year Crime: |
1998 |
Year Convicted: |
1999 |
Year Cleared: |
2017 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Illinois |
County or Region of Crime: |
Cook |
City of Crime: |
Chicago |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated (Transferred to ICE for deportation.) |
Summary of Case: |
"Arturo Reyes aka Arturo DeLeon-Reyes and Gabriel Solache were codefendants wrongly convicted on June 20, 2000 of a double murder of a couple and the kidnapping of their two young children from their apartment in Chicago, Illinois on March 28, 1998. The Soto's bodies were found on April 1, 1998. The prosecution's of Solache and DeLeon-Reyes were based on their confessions to the 1998 stabbing deaths of Jacinta Soto, 35, and Mariano Soto, 43, during a home invasion and the kidnapping of their two-month old daughter and their 3-year-old son. The prosecution contended they acted to help 22-year-old Adriana Mejia, who wanted a baby, and planned the assault because she wanted to steal the Soto's 2-month-old daughter. Solache, DeLeon-Reyes, and Mejia lived in the same home. Solache and DeLeon -- both Mexican citizens in the U.S. illegally -- were arrested on April 3, 1998. They recanted their confessions as coerced during 80 hours of interrogations by four Chicago PD Detectives, including Det. Reynaldo Guevara. They claimed they were beaten, deprived of sleep, given little food or drink, and denied access to consular assistance by the Mexican government. Solache, who did read or speak English, signed a confession that was written in English by a Cook County State's Attorney who did not speak Spanish. No physical or biological evidence linked either Solache or DeLeon-Reyes to the murders. The trial judge denied pretrial motions by Solache and Reyes to suppress their confessions as coerced. Solache and Reyes were tried simultaneously in the same courtroom with their cases decided by separate juries. After their convictions of first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and home invasion, Solache was sentenced to death, and Reyes was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Solache's death sentence was commutted to life in prison on January 10, 2003 by Illinois Governor George Ryan. Solache's conviction was affirmed by the Illinois Court of Appeals on August 19, 2003, and that court affirmed Reyes' conviction and sentece on September 30, 2003. In December 2003 Solache and Reyes filed separate post-conviction petitions claiming "that their confessions were the result of physical coercion by Detective Reynaldo Guevara of the Chicago police department." (People v. Reyes & People v. Solache, Nos. 1-04-1047, 1-04-1150 (Ill. App. Ct., 1st Dist, 1st Div., 12-11-2006) In March 2004 the trial judge "summarily dismissed each petition as frivolous and patently without merit." (Id.). They appealed, and on December 11, 2006 the appeals court reversed the dismissal of the petitions and remanded the Circuit Court for their petitions to be heard by a different judge. The appeals court said the issue to be considered by the new judge was not whether the men committed the crime, but whether their confessions were coerced. Eleven more years of legal proceedings followed. During that time extensive wrongdoing by the Chicago PD to coerce a confession from a suspect was publicly exposed, and a number of convictions were overturned. Det. Guevara was implicated in as many as 51 cases of possibly extracting a confession by coercion. On December 13, 2017 Cook County Circuit Court Judge James Obbish granted the post-conviction petitions of Solache and Deleon-Reyes, and vacated their convictions and ordered a new trial. Judge Obbish based his ruling on his opinion the prosecution did not did credibly rebut their allegations retired Detective Reynaldo Guevara coerced them into confessing to the murder of Jacinta Soto and Mariano Soto. Judge Obbish said Guevara's testimony during an October 2017 evidentiary hearing was unreliable and made "bald-faced lies" under oath when he testified he couldn't remember any substantive details of his interrogations of Solache and Deleon-Reyes. Judge Obbish said, “I can’t give an ounce of credibility to something he said 20 years ago.” The Cook County State's Attorney's Office stated that although it firmly believes Solache and Deleon-Reyes are guilty of the crime, in light of Judge Obbish's ruling they decided not to retry them. The SA's Office filed a motion to dismiss their charges, which was granted on December 21, 2017. When they were released from custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections they were taken into custody by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under a detainer for deportation proceedings. After the convictions of Solache and Reyes in 2000, Mejia pled guilty and on March 7, 2001 she was sentenced to life in prison for murder, and 30 years in prison for kidnapping, and 30 years in prison for home invasion. She remains imprisoned." |
Conviction Caused By: |
"Confesson coerced by Chicago Police Department 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 December 13, 2017 Cook County Circuit Court Judge James Obbish granted the post-conviction petitions of Solache and Deleon-Reyes, and vacated their convictions and ordered a new trial. Judge Obbish based his ruling on his opinion the prosecution did not did credibly rebut their allegations retired Detective Reynaldo Guevara coerced them into confessing to the murder of Jacinta Soto and Mariano Soto. Judge Obbish said Guevara's testimony during an October 2017 evidentiary hearing was unreliable and made "bald-faced lies" under oath when he testified he couldn't remember any substantive details of his interrogations of Solache and Deleon-Reyes. Judge Obbish said, “I can’t give an ounce of credibility to something he said 20 years ago.” The Cook County State's Attorney's Office stated that although it firmly believes Solache and Deleon-Reyes are guilty of the crime, in light of Judge Obbish's ruling they decided not to retry them. The SA's Office filed a motion to dismiss their charges, which was granted on December 21, 2017." |
Defendant Aided By: |
Reyes was represented pro bono beginning in Dec. 2006 by the Chicago law firm of Jenne & Block. |
Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
25 |
Age When Released: |
45 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
Hispanic |
Information Source 1: |
"Two men are cleared of murder after serving 20 years in jail — but instead of walking free, authorities turned them over to ICE, By Jessica Chia (Staff), New York Daily News, December 23, 2017" |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/men-cleared-murder-immediately-turned-ice-article-1.3716844 |
Information Source 2: |
"Judge throws out murder confessions of 2 who say detective beat them, By Megan Crepeau (Reporter), Chicago Tribune, December 13, 2017" |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-reynaldo-guevara-confession-hearing-20171213-story.html |
Information Source 3: |
"People v. Reyes & People v. Solache, Nos. 1-04-1047, 1-04-1150 (Ill. App. Ct., 1st Dist, 1st Div., 12-11-2006) (Reversing denial of post-conviction petitions and remanding to a different judge for consideration of whether their confessions were coerced in violation of their constitutional rights.)" |
Information Location 3: |
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/il-court-of-appeals/1194624.html |
Information Source 4: |
"Adriana Mejia R35905, Rapsheets.org (last viewed Jan 8, 2018)" |
Information Location 4: |
https://www.rapsheets.org/illinois/doc-prisoner/MEJIA_ADRIANA/R35905 |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org