A Florida man convicted of raping a 27-year-old woman over two decades ago in her Midtown Manhattan apartment finally received his punishment at a sentencing on Wednesday.
Jancys Santiago, 50, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars and five years of post-release supervision for the May 2000 rape that went unsolved for over 25 years, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced in a statement.
On May 23, 2000, the 27-year-old victim came home and discovered Santiago, masked and hiding in her closet, officials said.
Jancys Santiago, 50, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars and 5 years of post-release supervision for the May 2000 cold case rape.
He forced the woman into her bathroom, claiming he was wielding a knife and gun, and threatened to kill her. Santiago then viciously tied her arms and feet with a wire hanger and raped her, according to prosecutors.
A DNA profile created from the evidence in the survivor’s rape kit was indicted in 2005 by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office as “John Doe.”
It wasn’t until December 2023 that Santiago was identified and charged with the May 2000 rape — and a 2001 rape of a 21-year-old woman in the Bronx — due to a cutting-edge genetic tracing method.
A three-year $500,000 grant from the US Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance for the Bronx District Attorney’s Office to solve cold cases was used to fund the review of crime scene evidence that landed the rapist behind bars.
Santiago also has an open pending case for the 2001 rape of a 21-year-old woman in her Bronx apartment. Gregory P. Mango
Santiago, who was living in Groveland, Fla., was extradited to New York to face charges after his arrest.
On Sept. 30, he was found guilty of rape in the first degree and burglary in the first degree for the Manhattan case.
In the Bronx case, Santiago allegedly broke into a 21-year-old woman’s apartment while she was sleeping in December 2001, prosecutors added.
He similarly covered her face, bound her with a wire hanger, and raped her, authorities alleged.
Her rape kit generated a donor profile that matched the donor profile from Santiago’s Manhattan rape case.
The Bronx rape 2001 rape case remains open, officials said.
“After 25 years of evading accountability, Jancys Santiago was sentenced to a substantial prison term for raping a woman in her own home,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.
“Dogged investigators and my Office’s prosecutors ensured that this cold case was closed, and Santiago was convicted at trial. I thank the survivor for testifying about this horrific crime after so many years, and for her words at today’s sentencing,” Bragg added.