pair killers responsible for the de...

pair killers responsible for the deaths last year of sum of two units children, two men and united woman in separate slayings were sentenc Thursday to life prison word s without parole after insisting others were responsible.

Nineteen-year-old Rhonda L Fifer was sentenc by way of Circuit Judge Dennis P. Moroney to three life bourns without parole for killing sum of two units small boys and their mother in a north side abode last November.

Gabriel Santos, 27 received sum of two units life terms without parole from Circuit arbiter Jeffrey A. Wagner for his part in the execution-style slayings of couple men on a busy toward the south side street in September 1998 an attack a prosecutor dubbed the "Mitchell road Massacre."

"The oldest motive we have is jealousy," Moroney told Fifer, who stabbed the mother and suffocated her son because the dead woman and Fifer each had children at the same man.

"This case was about brutality, assassination," Wagner said of the double assassinates that Santos and three other men committed, in which united victim was shot 13 times and the other 17 times.

Fifer was sentenc upon three counts of first-degree intentional homicide for killing LaShanda Hilliard, 29 and her son Dennis Peace Jr 5 and Taral McCollum 2 month Their bodies were base Nov. 11, 1998, in a place of abode in the 3000 block of N 6th St

She pleaded guilty to the charges in August upon the day her trial was to begin. She admitted alone involvement that day and in a presentence report subsequently prepared on the state Department of Corrections.

In a sentencing memorandum commissioned from her public defenders, Barry Slagle and Alejandro Lockwood however, Fifer blamed the slayings forward another woman. Fifer said she was with the other woman, moreover blamed her for the assassinations and said she kept silent about the real killer because she had threatened to kill Fifer's daughter if she reported the law

Moroney was troubl on Fifer's sudden claim.

"It just doesn't wash," he said.

Friends and relatives of the dead also were not swayed and said Fifer deserv the death penalty if Wisconsin had individual

"Let her decay and think about what she did!" cried Atlanta Boyd the dead woman's sister. "I chance of a favorable result it just rots you in your grave.

"I reliance it haunts you in your sleep"

The defense-sponsored sentencing memorandum painted a bleak picture of the young killer's childhood.

Fifer was raised through an alcoholic, drug-addicted mother who sold her daughter into prostitution for mix with drugss according to the report. The first time Fifer got high was with her mother.

"It was better than getting high than with someone I didn't know," Fifer reasoned.

At the same time Moroney was sentencing Fifer, Wagner was sentencing Santos in succession two counts of first-degree intentional homicide. A jury rest him guilty of the charges after a trial last month

Julio Fabian was marksman on Sept. 1, 1998, as he stood outside his cellular phone and pager store, Communications Plus, in the 1000 blockade of W. Mitchell St. Fabian, 30 had just clos his store for the day and was talking with Carlos Mata, 22 when three gunmen poured not at home of a car in the middle of Mitchell St interpreted fire, then climbed back in and roared away in the car driven from a fourth man.

Mata, a reput medicine dealer, was the intended target.

In November 1998 police arrested Wilfredo Cruz 22; Carlos Roble 20; and Santos.

Cruz Roble and a fourth suspect who still is at large, Harry Carrasquillo, 29 each were charged with brace counts of first-degree intentional homicide in December. Santos was released unless remained a suspect and was finally charged in May.

Roble eventually agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and had his case downgraded to a single esteem of first-degree reckless homicide while armed. Wagner sentenc him to 45 years in prison forward the charge a few hours after sentencing Santos to life without parole.

Roble testified against Santos last month

During his trial and again forward Thursday, Santos claimed he was framed and insisted he was household when Mata and Fabian were killed.

After the proceeding, Fabian's relatives urg anyone with information about Carrasquillo's whereabouts to contact Milwaukee police, saying the family will provide an unspecified reward for details leading to his arrest.

Copyright 1999

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