COLORADO
A Mexican Mafia member locked up at the super-max prison in Florence, Colorado, plead guilty in federal court to first-degree murder of a fellow gang member, according to officials.
On Thursday, Richard Santiago, 56, plead guilty in federal court in Colorado. Immediately after the guilty plea, Judge Robert E. Blackburn sentenced Santiago to serve life in federal prison without the possibility of release.
According to Santiago’s plea agreement and evidence presented at the trial of co-defendant Silvestre Mayorqui Rivera, Santiago and Manuel Torrez were members and Rivera was an associate of the Mexican Mafia.
Torrez and Santiago arrived at ADX super-max prison in 2000. On April 21, 2005, shortly after Rivera’s arrival, he and Santiago murdered Torrez while the three were exercising in one of the ADX’s general population unit recreation areas by stomping, kicking and punching Torrez until he was dead.
Rivera was convicted of first degree murder following a jury trial and was also sentenced to serve life in federal prison without the possibility of release.
The FBI investigated the case.