by Manhattan, NY – A 31-year-old man accused of fatally bludgeoning four homeless men in Manhattan in 2019 is facing trial this week, with his attorneys arguing that he was driven by schizophrenia and auditory hallucinations at the time of the killings.
Incident Overview
Randy Santos, 31, allegedly went on a predawn killing spree on October 5, 2019, attacking sleeping homeless men in Chinatown with a metal bar scavenged from the street. Prosecutors claim he killed four men — Nazario Vasquez Villegas, Chuen Kwok, Anthony Manson, and Florencio Moran Camano — while leaving one victim alive.
Santos’ defense team argues that he was off his schizophrenia medication and was hearing voices urging him to “kill 40 people” to save his own life, causing him to commit the assaults.
“It was real to Randy. He needed the voices to stop; he needed to save his life and didn’t see another way out because of the schizophrenia,” attorney Marnie Zien said during opening statements at Manhattan Supreme Court.
The defense is pursuing a psychiatric defense, admitting to the assaults but claiming Santos is not criminally responsible due to his “disoriented diseased mind.”
Details of the Alleged Killings
Prosecutors described the series of attacks as a planned and brutal spree:
- The first attack reportedly occurred in September 2019, when Santos allegedly struck a homeless man, Kyle Leonard, near 12th Avenue with a stick. Leonard survived, and prosecutors described the incident as a “trial run.”
- On October 5, 2019, Santos allegedly attacked two men sleeping on cardboard at Bowery and Doyers streets, smashing their heads with a 4-foot-long metal bar.
- After leaving them for dead, prosecutors claim Santos returned to the scene and then traveled to East Broadway, where he attacked three more sleeping men.
According to Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Alfred Peterson, the victims died from severe blunt force trauma to the head.
“(He) knew exactly what he was doing and exactly the consequences of what he was doing and that he was killing these men,” Peterson told the jury.
Santos was 24 years old at the time of the alleged crimes and reportedly had a history of violent and random attacks.
Legal Proceedings
Santos faces four counts of first-degree murder, and if convicted, he could receive life in prison without parole. The trial is expected to last approximately two weeks, with the defense focusing on his mental state at the time of the attacks rather than disputing the physical acts themselves.
Conclusion
The trial highlights the challenges of mental illness defenses in cases involving extreme violence. While prosecutors maintain that Santos acted deliberately and understood the consequences of his actions, the defense asserts that schizophrenia and hallucinations played a decisive role in the deadly attacks.
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