Randy Santos was sentenced for the 2019 fatal beating of four sleeping homeless men in Manhattan's Chinatown. The case highlighted issues of homelessness, mental illness, and substance abuse. prosecutors sought 50 years to life; defense asked for 20 to life. Judge Laura Ward presided.
Randy Santos , right, and his attorney Arnold Levine appear in court after he was sentenced for fatally beating four sleeping men on the streets in 2019, in New York, Thursday, May 28, 2026.
(AP Photo/Richard Drew) Randy Santos, right, listens to his attorney Arnold Levine in court after he was sentenced for fatally beating four sleeping men on the streets in 2019, in New York, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) Randy Santos enters court for sentencing for fatally beating four sleeping men on the streets in 2019, in New York, Thursday, May 28, 2026.
(AP Photo/Richard Drew) Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg responds to questions during a press conference, in his office in New York, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Alfred Peterson, left, prepares to shake hands with Arnold Levine, defense attorney for Randy Santos, after Santos was sentenced in court for fatally beating four sleeping men on the streets in 2019, in New York, Thursday, May 28, 2026.
(AP Photo/Richard Drew) (AP Photo/Richard Drew) There was no one in the courtroom on Thursday to speak on behalf of the four men Randy Santos killed. No anguished friends or relatives to tell the judge about their abruptly shortened lives.
No one to confront Santos face-to-face about his psychosis-fueled rampage through Manhattan's Chinatown neighborhood nearly seven years ago, or to hear him apologize. There are no victim impact statements here today. There's nobody here to tell this court about their lives and how their absence is a loss, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Alfred Peterson told Judge Laura A. Ward.
But I'm certain this court and this city understands the value of every life, and the gift of life that we're afforded to live and make choices and have free will, Peterson said, haltingly and emotionally at times. That gift was taken away by Randy Santos. Santos, convicted in February of first-degree murder, sat solemnly between his court-appointed lawyers, listening through headphones as a Spanish interpreter translated the proceeding.
A Chinatown activist who arranged Kok's funeral watched quietly from the courtroom gallery, a few feet from Santos' family. Addressing the court in English, the 31-year-old pleaded for a sentence short enough to allow him to be somebody after prison. He told the judge that his mind which his lawyers said had deluded him into believing he had to kill 40 people or would die himself is much better now with daily medication.
And he promised to use his time in prison to finish school, improve his English and learn a trade. I just want to say, I'm very sorry for what I did, Santos said. I apologize to the people for what I did. I feel very bad about what I did.
I wish it never happened. Ward described Santos' case as the coming together of three horrible symptoms of this city: homelessness, mental illness and narcotics abuse. Those, she said, are the constant in all our violent crime cases. Peterson called the case a study in how the life of a young man can go off track so horribly, and said Santos clearly has his own challenges in life, much like the victims.
Santos' lawyers argued that his mental illness and substance abuse contributed to his actions and left him prone to violence. They tried, unsuccessfully, to convince a jury that he was not criminally responsible for the killings and that, instead of prison, he should be sent to a psychiatric treatment facility. We ask that Mr. Santos not be sentenced to die in prison, defense lawyer Arnold Levine told Ward, asking for a sentence of 20 years to life behind bars.
He is not incorrigible or beyond redemption or hope. Ward said she sympathized with Santos, but that she had 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, homeless. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 50 years to life in prison.
In addition to the murder charges, Santos was also convicted of attempted murder for assaults that left two other men severely injured. Before determining the sentence, Ward said she reviewed surveillance video of the attacks. Among other things, the footage showed Santos repeatedly lifting a 4-foot bar over his head and bringing it down on the head of one victim.
A couple out on a date on saw Santos beating another man with the same weapon, which he had found on the street, prosecutors said. The lone survivor of the half-hour killing spree, critically injured 49-year-old David Hernandez, staggered to a nearby street where police officers were trying to revive another Santos victim. Police later found Santos carrying the bar, which was covered with blood and hair
Randy Santos Homeless Murders Manhattan Mental Illness Sentencing
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