The defendants named in convicted murderer Marilyn Mulero’s wrongful conviction lawsuit have a whole different take on the events that unfolded the night of May 12, 1992, when Latin Kings gang members Jimmy Cruz and Hector Reyes were shot to death in Humboldt Park.
The defendants' accounts, including a denial of Mulero's claim that she wasn’t advised of her Miranda Rights, were recently detailed in a response to the wrongful conviction complaint filed by Mulero in federal court. Moreover, the Illinois Supreme Court’s account of the murders in a 1997 opinion that affirmed Mulero's conviction was likewise strikingly different from the story told in Mulero's complaint.
What did work for Mulero: Gov. JB Pritzker commuted her sentence in 2020, followed by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who vacated her conviction two years later on claims that retired Det. Reynaldo Guevera and his partner Ernest Halvorsen (now deceased) "tormented" her into confessing.
Marilyn Mulero
| Twitter
The misconduct claims leveled at Guevara were similar to claims made by dozens of others directed at him and other detectives over the past ten years– claims involving torture, framing evidence and coercing witnesses.
Foxx has exonerated many convicts with similar claims, poising them to collect millions in payouts from the city through wrongful conviction suits— similar to the one Mulero initially filed in July 2023.
Until Pritzker and Foxx stepped in, numerous post-conviction petitions filed by Mulero were rejected, as pointed out by defendants in their responses to the civil complaints.
In her original complaint, Mulero’s lawyers stated that she was “interrogated and tormented by two corrupt members of the Chicago Police Department, now-disgraced Detectives Reynaldo Guevara and Ernest Halvorsen. She lived through the pain, suffering, and utter horror of being in prison for nearly three decades.”
“She was the first Latina in the history of Illinois to be sentenced to death,” the complaint continues, “and spent five years in isolation on death row."
In 1994 the state Supreme Court in its opinion affirming her conviction, but vacating her death sentence, offered its account in “FACTS” of the events surrounding the murders that night– including that Mulero was advised of her Miranda rights, but waived them.
“Defendant borrowed her brother's car and drove [fellow Maniac Latin Disciple gang members Jacqueline Montanez and Madeline Mendoza] to look for some Latin Kings," the opinion stated. "They encountered Cruz and Reyes, who were Latin Kings, in another car. The three women and the victims all agreed to go to Humboldt Park. Defendant stated that she intended to kill Cruz and Reyes in the park. At the park, the group walked to the area of a public bathroom. According to defendant, Montanez went into the bathroom and shot Reyes, with the gun defendant had provided, while defendant remained outside. Montanez left the bathroom and gave defendant the gun. Defendant then shot Cruz in the back of the head. Defendant, Montanez and Mendoza then drove away. Both victims died of the gunshot wounds.”
Many of the wrongful conviction cases brought after Foxx exonerations have been settled before going to trial. Recently, for instance, Cook County approved a payout of $17 million for convicted cop killer Jackie Wilson and the Marquette Park Four case was recently settled for an undisclosed amount.
Alerts Sign-up