What the Suspect in the Chinatown Murders Says He Remembers From That Night

>> folded his hands and spoke softly and matter-of-factly about his goals once he is freed. He seemed unaware that if he is convicted he faces life in prison, and talked matter-of-factly about his goals once he is freed Article repeats the phrase “matter-of-factly about his goals once he is freed.”

Turn Rikers into a home for the criminally insane.

His family blames everyone except themselves

This guy is nuts. He obviously did the murders, caught on tape. We probably don't have the facilities to house criminally insane anymore, so just lock him up with the rest of the murderers.

the F train doesn't go to Union Sq

It is hard to understand why with hi record the suspect was still at large that murderous night. The Italian tourist was willing to return to testify - why was there no action?

New Yorkers have been victims of both random assaults and targeted attacks ever since Creedmore and Willowbrook were shut down. I've been punched twice, once in the gut and once in the arm, by passers-by -- and I know others for whom this is true. One friend was kicked hard in the shin by a guy who walked on, turned back, and smiled. We don't even bother reporting these incidents. People are spat on, shouted at in subway cars, pushed into subway tracks, knifed on the streets, murdered in our parks. Asians tend to be handy targets. Now that it's happened to four homeless men and caught on camera, we are shocked. Well, some people are shocked, anyway.

Will all these prior assaults be admissible in his current trial for the murders?

"He seemed unaware that if he is convicted he faces life in prison, and talked matter-of-factly about his goals once he is freed. “I take every class and activity they offer me here,” he said. “I want to educate myself. I try to stay active, occupied.” He added: “I want to get out of here and have a future. I want to marry. I want to have children.”" Given the evidence against him I write this: under no circumstance should he be allowed to mingle with society ever again. Neither in this country or his home country.

This man needs to be incarcerated for the rest of his life, and his family needs to bear some responsibility for his actions as well, unless they can document that they provided measurable evidence of care and of relentlessly seeking medical and psychological support for his condition. “I never thought he would kill someone,” she ( his mother ) said.. “I was afraid of him, though, because he punched me. That’s when I told him to get out of my house.” He soon turned violent, breaking his grandfather’s nose in a 2016 incident, and just last Monday slipped into the family home to steal a watch, a phone and three phone chargers. His mom booted Randy from the house more than three years ago, but he remained a menacing presence popping in and out of their lives. “When I told him to leave, he came back and threatened me,” she recounted. “He said when I go back to Santo Domingo, he’ll get people to cut my face.” NY Daily News October 5, 2019 Why he wasn't in jial for this alone is beyond me, but I have to ask how far the family pushed for his incarceration.

Sadness all around.

Why is this a surprise? It's exactly what every defense lawyer would tell a client.

Such a sad story. For Mr Santos, yes, but so much more for those he attacked so viciously- perhaps driven by fierce delusions of his illness- and those he liked, and their families. Even the Bronx Freedom Fund - a group that does good work to help people - got it badly wrong in this case. Intent to help contributed to harm. This is not a downstream issue about homelessness. This is about a failure of efforts at public health and support or care of poor people with chronic mental illness, as the commentator with the violently schizophrenic son can attest. When family is overwhelmed, when community isn’t enough, when people have histories of unpredictable violence...there has to be a better way. I wish the article had included interviews with state psychiatric facilities about what it might take to get Mr Santos in a safer place. (Anything short of murder convictions?) 3 days, 3 weeks, 30 days of treatment sometimes is not enough. If Mr Santos, 5 years ago , had been confined somewhere he could learn English, practice more regular living, managing his illness with support - if he had been able to do that for several consecutive years, and then released to supportive housing on probation- his story and those of all hi victims and their families might have been so much better. Public mental health is a lifetime, and sometimes life or death, issue. We need to do better.

In generations past individuals with history of severe mental dysfunction, pathological outbursts and drug addiction, individuals like Santos with documented threat to himself and others, would have been legally transferred into the custodial care of mental health facilities. The late 1960s saw a new view introduced regarding the mentally ill with California taking the lead under then Governor Ronald Reagan. The closing of mental hospitals. It coincided with the development of new drugs which it was believed would allow those with chronic mental illness to live independent lives within the community. Over the last 50 years this has all too tragically shown itself to be a misguided and overly optimistic expectation. It's become routine to see reports of domestic and random violence carried out by individuals unable to carry out the minimal level of responsibility required to manage their illness. Refusing to take the medication required. Unable to receive or take advantage of support mechanisms in place. America has a mental health crisis that in an of itself is operationally dysfunctional.

The story from mr. Dazio is something that unfortunately happens a lot. When you walk around lower Manhattan or take subways early morning or late evening, there's quite a few deranged people around. They scream, shout and harass. It can feel very menacing. Worst thing is, there's no obvious solution. All of this feels like a downstream effect of the homelessness crisis, but I don't think giving shelter and/or homes will accomplish much once they're in such a state.

I cannot help thinking about my adult son, who lives with unmedicated schizophrenia on the street, when I read this account. My son has been offered treatment ad infinitum and refuses it due to the symptoms of the illness (lack of insight) and instead self-medicates with hallucinogenics and street drugs (in addition to the strongest pot he can purchase or convince others to share.) These drugs impact his memory & he has delusions of being "gang stalked."(If people take pictures of him he thinks they are reaching into his brain to assault him in some way.) He assaulted me viciously and severely injured me 7 years ago, and was expelled from college for holding a large knife to his roommate's throat. He constantly scares and threatens others and has been evicted twice from homes the city has given him vouchers for. He is incredibly smart and manipulative. No matter how often and under what circumstances I call police, they refuse to hospitalize him for long if at all (most of the time completely declining), saying his civil rights trump any theoretical future danger. Whenever he is hospitalized, meds help but he goes off them after being released. They never hold him for more than 30 days, and sometimes it takes a jury (and my testimony) to hold him that long. I pray he never kills anyone. And I look for brave legislators who are interested in solving our mental health and homelessness problems in this country. When I find them, I will partner with them to help us all.

The local new television station in Los Angeles aired a segement on the same subject: Violence against unsuspecting citizens by homeless drug addicted or deranged people. The police pick them up, the judges let them go. Many of the attacks were captured on video and the perpetrator easily idenified. The police more often than not know the perpetrators from frequent interactions. We have a problem and need to come to terms with the results of ignoring. Santos' victims paid for our broken immigration and homeless systems.

It's worthwhile to note that gender plays a big role in why the system failed: almost all of the victims of the assaults outrage were men. My belief is that had he assaulted a woman and in the course of that assault touched her (either intentionally or accidentally) in an inappropriate way, he would have been locked up and none of this would have happened. When the victims are men, we often brush it off.

I live in downtown Minneapolis and have seen many fights go without action from the police. Incidents like this are bound to happen when mayors increasingly want police to ignore crime.

When I represented utterly inept criminals for the Legal Aid Society in Manhattan long ago the least among them -- those who couldn't come up with at least a logical lying defense -- would tell me they didn't remember what they were doing at the time of their alleged crime.

The judges who kept setting him free should be before their own courts on charges of aiding and abetting a murderer.

Horrible circumstances all around. What is particularly curious and somewhat strange however, is the reporter's decision to spill so much ink on the assault (2 years ago) of the Italian investment banker on holiday with his family...who survived...and so little attention is paid to the men who were murdered--their plight, their deaths, and their conditions seemingly less worthy of Edgar Sandoval's reporting...

Non violent drug offenders rot in prisons while this obviously dangerous and very violent individual is continually let loose. The system is broken.

In this instance, he, spending his natural life in prison would be best for the world. Because of our currently broken immigration system, if he is ever released from prison and deported back to the Dominican Republic, he would probably be back in the USA, illegally, quicker than one can bat and eye....PHEW!!!! Just awful for the victims' families and our nation.