Trial continues for fatal
police shooting in 1985

By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

Ismael Cruz was a young 9th Police District officer back in 1985 who worked a tumultuous Memorial Day shift that year.
Cruz worked the 4 p.m.-to-midnight shift that May 27, driving in one of those old blue Philadelphia Police Department cars. The car number was 912.
Cruz pulled over a motorcycle for a violation at 17th and Wallace streets but let the driver go when he saw a commotion across the street.
Two neighborhood toughs, Wilfredo "Cito" Santiago and a man known as "Big Vic," were fighting as a crowd watched.
After Cruz went to break up the melee, Santiago pedaled away on a 10-speed bicycle. The officer noticed a bulge on Santiago’s right side that he said appeared to be a small revolver.
Later in his shift, Cruz encountered Santiago again. This time, the man ran away and, according to the officer, tried to keep a gun from falling to the ground.
Cruz chased Santiago but lost him. The officer arrived at the man’s home at 603 N. 18th St, but was accosted by his friends and relatives. They bloodied the officer, who was saved by other officers racing to the scene.
Before he went to be treated at Hahnemann Hospital, Cruz heard members in the crowd say, "9-1-2, we’re going to get you."
Somebody did get the police officer in car 912, but it wasn’t Cruz. It was Officer Thomas Trench, who drove the car during the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift after Cruz’s shift ended.
As Trench did paperwork at about 2:30 a.m. in his car, parked on 17th Street between Brandywine and Spring Garden streets, the 43-year-old 11-year police veteran suffered fatal gunshots to the face and neck. The gunman surprised Trench, who had his window rolled down on the hot morning.
Santiago was arrested for the crime. He was convicted of first-degree murder in 1986 and sentenced to life in prison.
However, state Superior Court in 1991 ordered a retrial after finding that the trial judge had committed misconduct. In 1992, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that police questioned Santiago without a lawyer and the judge suppressed evidence. Santiago was freed on bail.
Later that year, a Common Pleas Court judge prohibited a retrial because of prosecutorial misconduct at trial. But, in 1994, Superior Court overturned that decision and permitted a retrial.
Fourteen years later, after much legal wrangling, the trial is taking place in Criminal Justice Center courtroom 902.
Cruz testified on Monday, acknowledging that the killing nearly ruined his life because he felt partly responsible for the death.
Now a police detective, Cruz identified the wood baseball bat he took from Santiago during the fight and talked about learning of Trench’s killing.
"The defendant was the first guy who came to my mind," he said.
Jury selection took two and a half days, followed by opening statements and witness testimony. There were some graphic pictures of the crime scene shown on an overhead projector.
The jury consists of 12 men and women, along with four alternates. Unlike the 1986 trial, this jury is not sequestered.
The case, being heard in front of Common Pleas Court Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes, is expected to last through next week. Santiago has pleaded not guilty to murder and possessing an instrument of crime.
Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega is leading the prosecution, with assistance from colleague Bridget Kirn.
The defense team consists of Bruce Franzel, Tom McGill and David Rudovsky. Franzel and McGill were the defense attorneys in the 1986 trial.
Santiago, 44, a short balding man with glasses, appears in court in a dress shirt and pants. He has been in prison since 2003 and is serving a 21-to-42-year sentence for aggravated assault related to a domestic disturbance on Souder Street in Castor Gardens. There are no family members or friends in attendance at the trial.
The slain officer’s two daughters, Annemarie and Carol, are among a half-dozen family members sitting in on the case. The family lived on the 3300 block of Ashville St. in Mayfair.
The prosecution is counting on testimony of witnesses who saw Santiago with a .38-caliber gun before and after the crime, an individual who saw the defendant near the scene after shots were fired and a trio of jailhouse informants who have said the defendant admitted his involvement in the murder. Santiago also allegedly told a prison guard trainee, "I’ll kill you like I killed that f——— cop."
The prosecution’s theory is that Santiago intended to kill Cruz. In his opening statement, Vega said a witness will recall hearing Santiago say, "That Puerto Rican cop, I’m going to see him again."
The defense will argue that the witnesses have contradicted themselves and each other.
In his opening, Rudovsky said police focused on Santiago on the "thinnest of evidence." He claimed police wanted to use the evidence to support their theory.
Rudovsky described the case as circumstantial, noting there are no fingerprints, blood, DNA or eyewitnesses.
"There are big gaps in their puzzle," he said of prosecutors.
Rudovsky said Santiago would have no reason to want to kill Cruz, who simply chased him — but did not arrest him — after the fight.
As for the jailhouse informants, Rudovsky said they wanted deals. He contended one informant received probation instead of a five-year mandatory sentence on a gun charge.
That informant, Howard Long, later violated probation and was sent back to prison by a judge.
"You couldn’t take the benefit of the best deal you ever got," said the Common Pleas Court judge, Lynne Abraham, now district attorney. ••
Reporter Tom Waring can be reached at 215-354-3034 or twaring@phillynews.com