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FILE – New York Police Department officers investigate the scene of an attack in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood, Oct. 5, 2019, in New York.<\/p>\n
Jeenah Moon\/AP<\/p>\n
FILE – Randy Santos, center, is arraigned in criminal court for the murder of four homeless men, Oct. 6, 2019, in New York. (Rashid Umar Abbasi\/New York Post via AP, Pool)<\/p>\n
Rashid Umar Abbasi\/AP<\/p>\n
FILE – A man walks past a makeshift memorial made for Chuen Kok, Oct. 18, 2019, in New York.<\/p>\n
Bebeto Matthews\/AP<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A man who fatally beat four sleeping men on the streets of New York City\u2019s Chinatown was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder, with a jury rejecting his insanity defense in the 2019 rampage.<\/p>\n
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Randy Santos\u2019 attorneys conceded that he pummeled the defenseless victims \u2014 Chuen Kok, Anthony Manson, Florencio Moran and Nazario V\u00e1squez Villegas \u2014 with a metal bar and meant to kill them.<\/p>\n
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But the lawyers contended that he was too mentally ill to be held criminally responsible. They said he was driven by schizophrenic delusions that made him believe he had to kill 40 people or would die himself.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors countered that Santos took steps, such as sometimes looking out for potential witnesses, and made remarks that showed that he knew that the October 2019 attacks were both illegal and immoral.<\/p>\n
\u201cA jury determined that Randy Santos knowingly and purposefully murdered four men with a metal bar in the span of less than 30 minutes. They were strangers to him and simply happened to be sleeping on Chinatown sidewalks that horrific night,\u201d Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. Jurors, who had deliberated for less than a day, declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Santos, 31, showed no reaction as he heard the verdict, through headphones that allowed him to listen to a Spanish-language interpreter. The Legal Aid Society, which represented Santos, said it would appeal.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThere is no dispute that Randy has suffered for years from schizophrenia, including on the nights of these tragic events,\u201d the group said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Also convicted of attempted murder and assault charges that include a September 2019 attack, Santos faces a potential life sentence. Sentencing is set for April 16.<\/p>\n
The killings spurred scrutiny of the city\u2019s struggles to aid and protect a homeless population that had reached record size. Then-Mayor Bill de Blasio said the violence shook \u201cthe conscience of who we are as New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kok, 83, was a former restaurant worker who had lost his bearings after his wife died and his church closed. Manson, 49, helped establish a Pentecostal church in Mississippi years ago and later made videos and blogged about his thoughts on Scripture, psychology and societal issues.<\/p>\n
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