True Crime
Michael Israel was sentenced to life without parole for the murder of James Santiago. The term follows a June jury conviction.
On Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Michael Kitsis sentenced Michael Israel, 39, of East Harlem, to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A jury convicted him on June 26, 2026, of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, third-degree assault, and endangering the welfare of a child.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
Life without parole after a jury conviction is the sentence imposed. It is not a new verdict. On Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, Justice Michael Kitsis sentenced Michael Israel, 39, to life without the possibility of parole. The June 26, 2026, jury had already convicted him of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, third-degree assault, and endangering the welfare of a child. The conviction date and the sentencing date are different steps.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said that, according to the evidence, at about 2:20 a.m. on Jan. 12, 2020, Israel broke into the Coney Island home of his former girlfriend, assaulted her, fatally stabbed her new boyfriend, James Santiago, 42, seven times, and dragged him into the street. The District Attorney's release does not name the surviving former girlfriend. Israel was arrested on Jan. 15, 2020.
The life-without-parole term is what the court imposed on the counts the jury found on June 26. Sentencing on Sept. 29 did not reopen those counts as new accusations.
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