MAN SENTENCED FOR MURDER IN DEATHS OF FOUR HOMELESS MEN IN MANHATTAN . (PHOTO).

Man sentenced for murder in deaths of four homeless men in Manhattan 

  A Manhattan jury on Thursday found Randy Rodriguez Santos guilty of murdering four homeless men who were sleeping in the Chinatown neighborhood in 2019. The 12-member jury rejected his defense claim that he was not responsible due to mental illness and reached a verdict in less than a day. Santos, 31, faces life in prison when he is sentenced in April.

The killings underscored the vulnerability of the city’s homeless population, particularly those struggling with mental health challenges. On the night of the attacks in October 2019, Santos, who was homeless at the time, carried a 15-pound metal bar and struck the men repeatedly in the head around 2 a.m., killing four. A fifth man narrowly escaped. Surveillance video captured the brutal assaults. Prosecutors said Santos had conducted a “trial run” a week earlier in Chelsea, attacking a sleeping man with a stick before being chased off. During the Chinatown attack, he sought out a weapon and carried out the fatal assault, pausing only briefly when someone passed by.

The victims, ranging in age from their late 30s to their 80s, were Anthony L. Manson, Nazario A. Vazquez Villegas, Chuen Kwok, and Florencio Moran Camano. Santos, who moved from the Dominican Republic to New York City about five years before the attacks, had a history of mental health struggles, prior arrests for assaults, and periods in shelters. His defense argued that schizophrenia and auditory hallucinations drove him to commit the murders, claiming he believed he had to kill 40 people to save his own life. Prosecutors countered that while Santos had mental illness, he still understood his actions and knew they were wrong, saying his brain “was functioning well enough” during the attacks.a