{"id":475554,"date":"2026-10-24T16:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T16:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/475554\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T16:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T16:04:11","slug":"colorado-man-pleads-guilty-for-1997-deep-ellum-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/475554\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado man pleads guilty for 1997 Deep Ellum murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Colorado man<\/a> pleaded guilty to murder earlier this week for a 1997 Deep Ellum<\/a> shooting, according to prosecutors, years after the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office reviewed the case and a Texas court determined the wrong man was\u00a0initially convicted<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michael Nevarez, 45, was sentenced to 21 years in prison by a jury, according to a news release from the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. His conviction ends a criminal legal saga that has spanned decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On July 14, 1997, 21-year-old Damond Wittman was standing with friends in a\u00a0parking lot outside of a Deep Ellum nightclub. A man approached the group and asked for a cigarette. After Wittman gave him one, the man pulled out a gun and demanded money. Prosecutors said Wittman tried to fight off the gunman, but he was shot multiple times.<\/p>\n

He later died at\u00a0Baylor Medical Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1998, Martin Santillan, 24, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison. At the time of his trial, he had an alibi that proved his innocence.\u00a0Five people testified during\u00a0trial that they were with Santillan at a different nightclub 12 miles away the night of the shooting, according to previous reporting<\/a> from the Dallas Morning News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His conviction relied on a sole eyewitness who picked Santillan out of a six-person photo lineup on his second time viewing photos with Dallas police, according to previous reporting by The News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No DNA evidence at the time linked him to the fatal shooting, but a jury found him guilty of capital murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.<\/p>\n

Santillan was incarcerated for more than 25 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in 2021, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit reviewed its investigation. They used newer technology to conduct additional DNA testing of evidence recovered from the crime scene, which included a Dallas Stars jersey with possible blood stains found near the fatal shooting. The testing found “DNA profiles belonging to unknown individuals,” according to a news release from the district attorney’s office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After getting help from the Dallas and Colorado Springs police departments, investigators were led to Nevarez. According to prosecutors, Nevarez would have been 16 at the time of the fatal shooting. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In March 2023, a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals recognized that Santillan was innocent. The district attorney’s office dismissed the case against him. Santillan teared up then as prosecutors apologized for a conviction that led to him spending decades in prison for a crime he did not commit.<\/p>\n

“That’s what I’ve been waiting to hear since July of 1997,” Santillan told The News then<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot said in a news release Friday that Nevarez’s conviction was an “important step toward accountability” for Wittman’s murder and his family.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It is also a reminder of the profound consequences of a wrongful conviction,” Creuzot said. “Martin Santillan lost more than 25 years of his life for a crime he did not commit. Our responsibility is to pursue the truth, correct past injustices and hold the person responsible accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Colorado man pleaded guilty to murder earlier this week for a 1997 Deep Ellum shooting, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,88032,89512,92331,89216,87998,89138,95591],"class_list":["post-475554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-dallas-fortworth","tag-tp-texas","tag-tp-courts","tag-tp-crime","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-dallas-county","tag-tp-deep-ellum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}