{"id":360464,"date":"2026-09-30T04:22:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T04:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/360464\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T04:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T04:22:17","slug":"bloods-member-gets-life-for-fatally-stabbing-exs-new-beau-dragging-him-naked-down-brooklyn-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/360464\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloods member gets life for fatally stabbing ex’s new beau, dragging him naked down Brooklyn street"},"content":{"rendered":"

A brutal gangbanger who stabbed his ex-girlfriend\u2019s new boyfriend<\/a> to death, dragged him naked down a Brooklyn street, and whispered something in his ear as he died will spend the rest of his life behind bars, a judge ruled Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Michael Israel, 39, threatened to get violent with his ex hours before the Jan. 12, 2020 murder of James Santiago,<\/a> sending her a message that read \u201cdie with ya lie\u201d and saying in a FaceTime call he\u2019d come to her home and \u201cf\u2014 her up\u201d for sleeping with another man, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

He did just as he threatened, heading out from Harlem and breaking into his former girlfriend\u2019s Coney Island home on W. 15th St. near Neptune Ave. Once there, he beat her so badly he left her bruised with two black eyes.<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Santiago was pronounced dead at Coney Island Hospital after he was stabbed multiple times inside a home on W. 15th St. in Coney Island, Brooklyn on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

He did far worse to the 42-year-old Santiago, stabbing him seven times \u201cin his most vital organs, leaving no chance of survival,\u201d senior assistant D.A. Chelsea Toder wrote in a Sept. 2 letter to Brooklyn Supreme Court Michael Kitsis.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext, (Israel) dragged James Santiago\u2019s body \u2013 naked, except for a t-shirt, and bloody \u2013 out of the home, down a long pathway, and out onto the street. (Israel) then took the victim\u2019s t-shirt and fled the scene with James\u2019 shirt in his hands,\u201d Toder wrote. \u201c(Israel) chose to leave James bloody, crawling around in the middle of the street, and to top it off \u2013 whispered something in his ear before (Israel) left him to die naked and alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

A jury found Israel guilty<\/a>\u00a0of first-degree murder, burglary, assault and endangering the welfare of a child on June 26, 2026. Kitsis sentenced Israel, who has a lengthy criminal record and is a Bloods gang member, to life in prison without the possibility of parole.<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Santiago was pronounced dead at Coney Island Hospital after he was stabbed multiple times inside a home on W. 15th St. in Coney Island, Brooklyn on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

His ex and the mother of his child, Jennifer Ortiz, took the stand to describe years of abuse, telling the jury about how he stayed with him and he became bolder with that abuse, Toder wrote.<\/p>\n

She even secured the $100,000 bond to spring him from jail in April 2019 after he was charged with attempted murder for shooting a man in the Bronx three months earlier \u2014 leaving him free to beat her and kill Santiago, the Daily News reported in 2020.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a chilling and calculated attack on an innocent man and woman by a defendant with a long history of domestic abuse. Not only did he commit a brutal murder, but he also shattered the sanctity and safety of a family\u2019s home,\u201d Brooklyn D.A. Eric Gonzalez said Tuesday. \u201cI hope that today\u2019s sentence brings some solace to James Santiago\u2019s relatives, including his devastated mother, who lost her son in such a violent and cruel manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel took the stand in his own defense, admitting to the killing but claiming extreme emotional distress.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Isreal) got up on the stand and accused Mr. Santiago of laying naked with a small child on his penis, now not only defiling Mr. Santiago\u2019s body, but his reputation,\u201d Toder wrote.<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Santiago was pronounced dead at Coney Island Hospital after he was stabbed multiple times inside a home on W. 15th St. in Coney Island, Brooklyn on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

But \u201cnot one shred of evidence\u201d supported his version of the events, and other evidence of the crime contradicted his story, the prosecutor wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt no point did (Israel) show remorse for the killing or his assault on Ms. Ortiz, casting her as a delinquent parent and a drunk,\u201d she wrote, adding, \u201cThis case was motivated by domestic violence, by a belief system that (Israel) could control Ms. Ortiz, her life, and the men she chose to date through violence. James Santiago \u2013 who had only come on the scene recently prior to the homicide \u2013 was just a brutal casualty here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorneys for Israel said that the sentencing \u201cis not the end of the legal process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we respect the jury system and the difficult task the jurors faced, we strongly believe the outcome was inconsistent with the evidence at trial,\u201d his attorneys Adam Bolotin and Darren Winslow said. \u201cThis is a devastating result for Mr. Israel and his family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A brutal gangbanger who stabbed his ex-girlfriend\u2019s new boyfriend to death, dragged him naked down a Brooklyn street,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,265],"class_list":["post-360464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}