Again, a jury convicts
Wilfredo Santiago

By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

More than a week after it began deliberations, a jury on Tuesday convicted Wilfredo Santiago of the 1985 killing of police officer Thomas Trench.
Santiago, 44, was charged with first-degree murder and possessing an instrument of crime for the slaying. He faces an automatic sentence of life in prison.
July selection began April 28, with testimony starting two days later with a jury of six men and six women. Closing arguments took place on May 19, with jury deliberations getting under way later that day.
Trench was a 43-year-old married father of two who lived on Ashville Street in Mayfair. The 11-year veteran of the department was assigned to the 9th Police District.
The officer was shot to death in the early-morning hours of May 28, 1985 as he sat in his patrol car on 17th Street, between Brandywine and Spring Garden streets.
Santiago was charged and convicted of first-degree murder in 1986 and sentenced to life in prison.
In 1991, Pennsylvania Superior Court ordered a retrial after ruling that the trial judge had committed misconduct. The next year, the state Supreme Court ruled that police had questioned the suspect without a lawyer and that the judge had suppressed evidence. Santiago was granted bail and was released from prison.
Later in 1992, a Common Pleas Court judge found there had been prosecutorial misconduct at the trial and prohibited a retrial. Superior Court reversed that decision in 1994 and allowed a retrial.
After 14 years of legal debate, the retrial finally took place. Common Pleas Court Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes is presiding.
Defense attorneys Bruce Franzel, Tom McGill and David Rudovsky have pointed to the lack of eyewitnesses, blood, DNA, fingerprints and a murder weapon. They told the jury of threats made against police by the radical group MOVE, which was angry that the city dropped a bomb on its West Philadelphia headquarters two weeks before the Trench murder. The bombing caused a fire that killed 11 adults and children.
Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega presented witnesses who testified they saw Santiago with a gun before the murder.
Vega offered testimony that Santiago vowed to "get" the officer who chased him after a neighborhood fight and later had a physical encounter with his cousin and aunt.
That officer, Ismael Cruz, was riding in car 912 during the 4 p.m. to midnight shift on May 27, 1985. Trench took that car when his shift began at midnight.
The defense countered that their client would not kill a cop who simply chased him but didn’t arrest him.
There were witnesses who placed Santiago near the scene of the crime after the shots were fired.
Three jailhouse informants have told authorities that Santiago confessed to them, though defense attorneys insist that those criminals were looking to get reduced sentences in exchange for their cooperation.
One witness, then a correctional officer trainee at Holmesburg Prison, testified that Santiago told him, "I’ll kill you like I killed that f——— cop."
Santiago is serving a sentence of 21 to 42 years in prison. He was jailed in 2003 for an unrelated domestic disturbance in Castor Gardens. ••
Reporter Tom Waring can be reached at 215-354-3034 or twaring@phillynews.com