Brown County jury finds Pedro Santiago-Marquez guilty of killing Ashwaubenon man
GREEN BAY – A Brown County jury found Pedro Santiago-Marquez guilty Thursday of first-degree intentional homicide and mutilating a corpse for the 2021 death of Jason Mendez-Ramos, a 36-year-old Ashwaubenon man.
The case went to the jury around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, after about three and a half days of testimony. They returned the guilty verdict an hour later.
Sentencing is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. May 30.
Santiago-Marquez, 34, of Green Bay, was charged with both counts as party to a crime. He testified Thursday as one of just two defense witnesses.
Santiago-Marquez owned Empire Painting and a towing company, which both operated out of a shop located at 1638 E. Mason St. in Green Bay. Prosecutors say in the afternoon of Sept. 27, 2021, Santiago-Marquez shot, or ordered the shooting, of Mendez-Ramos at the shop. Later that day, they say, Santiago-Marquez ordered the burning of Mendez-Ramos' body, which was found on the northwest corner of Cofrin Memorial Arboretum in the early morning hours of Sept. 28, 2021.
The prosecution, led by Brown County District Attorney David Lasee and Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Hardtke, began presenting witnesses Monday, and rested its case Thursday morning. Santiago-Marquez's defense attorney, Heather Lynn Richmond, called two witnesses Thursday morning, including Santiago-Marquez.
What happened during Thursday testimony?
The final prosecution witness, Green Bay Police Department Detective David Graf, the lead investigator on the case, took the stand Thursday morning for the defense's cross-examination. He was the last witness to testify when the court adjourned Wednesday.
Graf said he interviewed Santiago-Marquez three times during the course of the investigation. He testified that while Santiago-Marquez was always cooperative, he was not completely forthcoming with some information.
Afterward, the prosecution rested its case, and Richmond presented just two witnesses for the defense: Isaac Maisonet, who testified for the prosecution Tuesday, and Santiago-Marquez.
Maisonet, who formerly worked for Santiago-Marquez as a foreman at Empire Painting, testified that he was at the shop on East Mason Street the evening of Sept. 27, 2021, and did not remember seeing a large oil spill on the floor of the garage, which police noted during a search of the shop Oct. 5.
Prosecutors have suggested this oil spill may have been evidence of cleanup after Mendez-Ramos was shot. However, investigators said Santiago-Marquez told them that day this was spillage from a tow truck's oil change. Santiago-Marquez said the same when he took the stand.
On the witness stand, Santiago-Marquez said he spoke with Mendez-Ramos at the shop the morning of Sept. 27, 2021, but did not see him the rest of the day. He said Jeisaac Rodriguez-Garcia, an Empire Painting employee, was in possession of a company van that investigators say was seen on surveillance video driving to and stopping at the site of the fire near the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus where Mendez-Ramos' body was burnt. Santiago-Marquez testified that multiple phone calls he had with Rodriguez-Garcia the night of Sept. 27 and early morning hours of Sept. 28 were related to Rodriguez-Garcia asking for money he was owed to buy pills.
Rodriguez-Garcia testified Tuesday that on Sept. 27, 2021, Santiago-Marquez asked him to take a van and burn something concealed in garbage bags and a tarp inside the van, and the two met, at which time Santiago-Marquez provided a gallon of gasoline and the van keys. Santiago-Marquez testified Thursday that he never saw Rodriguez-Garcia in-person that day.
Santiago-Marquez also testified that he did not answer multiple calls from Mendez-Ramos' girlfriend, Gabriela Garcia, until late in the day Sept. 28, 2021, because she had called his cellphone used for his towing business, and he did not recognize her number. He said he returned Garcia's call as soon as he was made aware she was trying to contact him.
Additionally, prosecutors previously pointed out a novelty sign hanging in the shop depicting a stick figure pointing a gun at a kneeling stick figure's head, with the words "DANGER: Do not disturb the boss." Santiago-Marquez said the sign was given to him by an employee, who hung it up.
"Pedro, did you kill Jason Mendez?" Richmond asked.
"No, he was my friend," Santiago-Marquez replied, through a Spanish-to-English translator.
Takeaways from Wednesday's testimony:
Investigators conducted a consent search of Santiago-Marquez's shop on Oct. 5, 2021, and executed a search warrant at the same shop Oct. 14, 2021. During both searches, they found no physical evidence or traces of blood.
The main thing that caught investigators' attention during the searches was a large oil spill in the garage. However, Santiago-Marquez told police it was a spill from a tow truck's oil change. The state crime lab ran a test to see if spilled oil could mask the presence of blood, and found that on its own, it could not; meaning, an oil spill on its own would not have prevented police from finding blood.
A witness, Israel Ortega, gave police information during a series of interviews between October 2021 and February 2022. On Feb. 28, 2022, Ortega told investigators he went into the paint shop in the afternoon of Sept. 27, 2021, and Alexander Burgos, an Empire Painting employee, handed him a bag of items to dispose of. Among those items were three .40-caliber bullet casings, which Ortega sealed in concrete at a home he was working on. Ortega assisted police in uncovering all three shell casings, which were found that day, Green Bay Police Detective Craig Pakkala testified.
Surveillance footage from nearby businesses captured vehicles and people coming and going from the shop on East Mason Street. Prosecuting attorneys played an approximately hour-long video during Detective Brad Biller's testimony depicting relevant surveillance video clips from Sept. 27 edited together in chronological order. Included in the video was footage showing Mendez-Ramos' car, a red Ford Focus, traveling to the shop the morning of Sept. 27. The Ford Focus is not seen driving again until after 5 p.m. that day, after investigators say someone can be seen on video getting dropped off from another vehicle.
Phone records showed Mendez-Ramos used his phone throughout the morning of Sept. 27, until 12:27 p.m., after which time there were no more outgoing texts or phone calls. After that time, he had repeated missed calls and voicemails throughout the afternoon and night.
Phone records also showed Mendez-Ramos called Santiago-Marquez multiple times throughout the day Sept. 26, 2021. Santiago-Marquez never answered.
Santiago-Marquez' phone records showed multiple outgoing and incoming calls between Santiago-Marquez and Rodriguez-Garcia between about 9:30 p.m. and after midnight.
Other takeaways from earlier in the week:
Rodriguez-Garcia testified that on the night of Sept. 27, 2021, Santiago-Marquez asked him to take a van and dispose of "garbage" in back seat by lighting it on fire. He said he met Santiago-Marquez at his house, where Santiago-Marquez gave him van keys and gasoline. He then went to the trail on UW-Green Bay's campus, where he started the fire. Rodriguez-Garcia denied knowing the "garbage" was Mendez-Ramos' body.
Phone records showed Rodriguez-Garcia called Santiago-Marquez around the exact time a neighbor who witnessed the fire starting called police.
A sock found on the trail contained Rodriguez-Garcia's DNA, and the van was seen parked at Rodriguez-Garcia's residence.
Rodriguez-Garcia and Ortega both testified that Santiago-Marquez told them separately he shot Mendez-Ramos. Prosecutors pointed out that Rodriguez-Garcia and Ortega disliked each other and did not get along.
Ortega testified that before Mendez-Ramos died, he heard Santiago-Marquez say he planned to "start something" with Mendez-Ramos. Ortega also said he was handed a bag of items to dispose of, including Mendez-Ramos' phone and three bullet casings, and that Santiago-Marquez sought Ortega's help in moving Mendez-Ramos' car from the shop's parking lot.
Garcia testified that Mendez-Ramos was angry at Santiago-Marquez for not paying him when they spoke over Facetime as Mendez-Ramos went to Santiago-Marquez's shop the morning of Sept. 27.
Another Empire Painting employee, Sergio Valentin, said Santiago-Marquez wanted assistance moving a van parked at Rodriguez-Garcia's home to a car dealer where Santiago-Marquez could sell it. Valentin said immediately after getting into the van, he was pulled over by police. He said he called Santiago-Marquez, who was driving directly in front of him, for insurance questions, but Santiago-Marquez never returned to the site of the traffic stop.
Santiago-Marquez was known to carry a .40-caliber Glock pistol, but said he sold it before Mendez-Ramos' death to an unnamed man who has since died.
Maisonet testified that he saw Santiago-Marquez in possession of his gun weeks before Mendez-Ramos' death.
Closing arguments
Assistant District Attorney Hardtke gave closing arguments for the prosecution. She summarized evidence presented throughout the week and argued why Santiago-Marquez was at the center of the homicide, despite no physical evidence pinning him to the crime.
"If he didn't directly pull the trigger, he was directly responsible for the person who did," Hardtke said.
Although no physical evidence was found at the shop, weeks passed before police came to process the shop, allowing ample time for cleanup, Hardtke said. The large oil stain police saw Oct. 5 was a purposeful effort to hide a stain already on the garage floor, she said.
Circumstantial evidence, Hardtke told the jury, is just as important as physical evidence. And in this case, she argued, there was plenty that pinned Santiago-Marquez at the center of the crime.
"There is no other conclusion that fits all of the evidence," she told the jury.
In the defense's closing arguments, Richmond argued sufficient evidence did not exist to convict Santiago-Marquez of the crime.
"After all the evidence that's been admitted, I still don't think we know what happened to Jason. We don't know where he was shot. We don't know when he was shot," Richmond said.
No gun was found, and no DNA, blood or physical evidence of any kind was seen at the shop. As for the "Do not disturb the boss" sign, Richmond said, "this was as shop of all male employees," and was not abnormal to have "distasteful" jokes.
In the prosecution's rebuttal closing arguments, Lasee said all the circumstantial evidence points to Santiago-Marquez as being responsible for Mendez-Ramos' murder.
"The laundry list of things you would have to believe are coincidences, it's 10 things long," Lasee said during rebuttal closing.
Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ArseneauKelli.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Jury: Green Bay man guilty in burning body homicide trial
