Prosecutors Drop Charges Against Two Men 23 Years After Conviction

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jul 20, 2016 9:42PM

Photo credit: Gary Eckstein

Two men who were convicted of murder more than 20 years ago were ordered released from prison after Cook County prosecutors dropped charges on Wednesday. A Chicago police detective who worked the case is accused of pushing false testimony from a would-be informant.

Cook County Jude LeRoy Martin vacated the convictions of Jose Montanez and Armando Serrano after prosecutors dropped the charges.

Testimony that led to the conviction of the two men was called into question in 2004, when Francisco Vicente recanted original statements to police following interviews with the Medill Innocence Project, a nonprofit which works to investigate possibly wrongly convictions. Vicente, a heroin addict facing charges of his own, was allegedly plied by Detective Reynaldo Guevara with a false story. He originally testified that Montanez and Serrano confessed to killing Rodrgio Vargas in the Humboldt Park neighborhood in 1993.

Vicente, who faced four felony counts, received only the mandatory minimum sentence.

Last year, state’s Attorney Anita Alvarez declined to reopen six murder cases in which Guevara was involved—including those of Montanez and Serrano—that were referred by City Hall. The city’s investigation found that four of the men were probably innocent, including Montanez and Serrano. Detective Guevara, who retired in 2005, was also involved in the 1989 conviction of Juan Johnson. Johnson was later acquitted and awarded $21 million in damages for the wrongful conviction.

The Exoneration Project, which represented Montanez, celebrated the new decision while also calling for further exonerations.