Trials
Santiago got the 25-year max, stacked on 20. Genealogy found a suspect. The jury already convicted.
On Sept. 18 in the Bronx, Santiago was sentenced to a consecutive 25-year maximum, stacked on 20 years, after a June first-degree rape verdict. An appeal is a notice, not a reversal.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
A consecutive maximum is how two judgments stack. It is not a new trial on how investigators built the family tree. On Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, Bronx Supreme Court Justice Laurence Busching sentenced Jancys Santiago, 50, to the 25-year maximum for the December 2001 first-degree rape of Katy Vicchitto, then a 21-year-old college senior. The term runs consecutive to a 20-year sentence he is already serving for a separate 2000 Manhattan home-invasion rape. A Bronx jury convicted him of first-degree rape in June. Investigative genetic genealogy is how the file left the cold drawer. It is not the verdict.
The case sat cold for more than 20 years. NYPD and prosecutors used a Justice Department grant to upload crime-scene DNA to an opt-in ancestry site, narrow the tree to Santiago’s line, and then match discarded water-bottle DNA to both the Bronx and Manhattan rapes. Reporting called it the first time New York used family trees to solve cold-case rapes. A grant and a bottle swab can generate a lead and a later match. They do not replace the June finding that the State proved first-degree rape beyond a reasonable doubt.
Defense attorney Michael Croce maintained Santiago’s innocence, said he will appeal, and argued the prosecution was a DNA case without eyewitnesses. An appeal notice is a request for a higher court to look. It is not a reversal, and it does not unwind the sentence. Busching also entered a permanent order of protection and ordered sex-offender registration.
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By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
Nathan Lee Lowe pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, and the court sentenced him to life without parole.
A guilty plea and a life term are the judgment on the counts he admitted. They are not a jury verdict, and the public accounts still do not name a weapon or a medical cause beyond trauma. WACB’s plea story says deputies found “obvious severe trauma.” WHKY, carrying that story, says “severe trauma.” The Taylorsville Times, citing Sheriff Chad Pennell the day after the 2024 arrest, said “apparent trauma” and listed Lowe’s age then as 39. The plea coverage lists him as 41.
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Reporting noted by WACB, WHKY, and Taylorsville Times.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
A Marion County jury convicted Roderick Watson Jr., and the judge sentenced him to life.
A life term after a guilty verdict is the judgment on that count. It is not a second look at the self-defense claim the jury rejected. The State Attorney's Office says deputies found four gunshot wounds. Law & Crime, citing the arrest affidavit, says six. The office's release places the school "in Citrus." WFTV places it in Citra. The name on the office's release is Jaurez. Three other outlets spell it Juarez.
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Reporting noted by Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office, WFTV, WCJB, and Law & Crime.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
Judge Morgan sentenced Dylan Cody Lamb to life for killing Nadyne Marie Tillman.
Friday's order is the sentence on an August jury verdict. Keys News, citing the State Attorney's Office, reported life without parole plus two five-year terms that run together. Keys Weekly reported the verdict as second-degree murder, false imprisonment, and tampering with evidence. The Miami Herald's conviction story called one of those counts kidnapping. The judgment Keys News reported Friday used the false-imprisonment label.
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Reporting noted by Keys News, Keys Weekly, Miami Herald, NBC 6 South Florida, Monroe County State Attorney's Office, and Monroe County Sheriff's Office.