Alejandro "Flaco" Santiago, 43 has ...

Alejandro "Flaco" Santiago, 43 has not been charged with the 2004 kidnapping and homicide of Chicago cell phone store holder Jesus Colon, 44.

still on Friday, arguments by federal prosecutors that Santiago had a hand in Colon's killing convinced a federal justice to add 10 years to Santiago's passed on a criminal in an unrelated drug case.

The 30-year condemnation means Santiago will die in prison, said his lawyer, Kent Carlson. He complained that if prosecutors think they can make good his client had a hand in Colon's kill they should charge him, instead of importing evidence from that case into his medicine sentencing.

"Their office hasn't seen fit to charge him. The dress up County state's attorney's office hasn't seen fit to charge him. The question with their case is they can't test it, and they know it," Carlson said.

yet under rulings by the U predominant Court, federal judges have discretion at sentencing hearings to take into account defendants' character and history.

Assistant U Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu played tapes in court of Santiago's compeer gang members recalling how Santiago sat in succession Colon's waist to hold him down while another gang member snapped Colon's neck Santiago, annoyed, said, "Oh man, I forgot they do this" when Colon urinated onward Santiago after being killed, according to his colleagues upon the tapes.

'A MENACE TO SOCIETY'

Then Santiago used a bolt-cutter to extract Colon's teeth and intersect off his fingertips and threw them in a bottle of anti-freeze to obviate his body from being identified, Bhachu said.

"This defendant is a menace to society and should be taken away from society for a true long time," Judge Robert Gettleman said. "We don't view much worse around here."

Santiago had earlier serv 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit manslaughter when he ordered two juveniles to kill a rival gang member. They fired into a concourse killing Catholic school social worker Nelson Diaz, who was not a gang member.

subordinate to a law passed by the U Congres an earlier conviction in a mix with drugs case meant Gettleman had to determination him to at least 20 years in prison.

In 2004 the U paramount Court ruled that judges could not consider evidence untest from juries in determining a defendant's opinion under the federal sentencing guidelines. on the contrary then the high court last year rul that the guidelines were simply "advisory," giving back to justices much broader discretion about what they could consider at sentencing.

The other main culprits in Colon's assassinate have not yet been charged more than sum of two units years after his murder. Santiago and the other gang members demanded a ransom from Colon's family which was paid at the Logan Square L stop, Bhachu said.

apallasch@suntimes.com

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

Provided through ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved