A Mohnton man was found guilty of murder for the 2023 shooting death of a Reading woman.
Jeremiah Santiago, 34, of the 700 block of Fairmont Avenue was convicted Wednesday by a Berks County Court jury of third-degree murder and related charges for the August 2023 shooting of 58-year-old Tina Grier.
Santiago remains in Berks County Jail awaiting sentencing in July.
According to police:
Just before midnight on Aug. 3, Grier fired multiple shots from the sidewalk into an apartment building in the 100 block of South 10th Street.
One of the bullets struck Grier, who was laying in her bed.
Grier, a 1984 Wilson High School graduate was shot in the face, causing a traumatic brain injury. She never regained the ability to communicate with her loved ones and died in a rehab center of complications from the gunshot wound nearly four months later on Oct. 31, according to her mother, Jean Butkus.
Santiago was identified as a suspect after being spotted in the area of the shooting the next day by a Reading police investigator who recognized Santiago’s ponytail.
Surveillance video showed that Santiago and another male went to Grier’s home from a residence on South Ninth Street before the shooting and returned to the address after.
Police say the victim’s husband admitted purchasing crack cocaine from the other male shortly before the shooting.
According to court documents, during a call to an inmate at the county jail three days after the shooting, Santiago discussed the incident and admitted he “hit an innocent bystander.”