On a Saturday night in February 2019, Santos Medrano, a 37-year-old Hispanic man, was walking home from work in Southeast Baltimore. Just before 10:30 p.m. on February 16th, as he made his way through the 400 block of Imla Street, he was attacked. Initially, police responded to a report of an assault, but upon his arrival at the hospital, medical examiners discovered the grim truth: Medrano had been shot.
An autopsy later confirmed he died from a single gunshot wound to his face, fired at close range. His sister received the devastating call from the hospital around midnight, informing her that her brother had been killed.
The investigation into what was determined to be a fatal robbery began to unfold. Medrano’s sister mentioned to the media that police might have video evidence showing three assailants—a woman and two men—who had been in a car. A witness who was driving by saw two men in the alley near Medrano's body; one was standing over him holding an object that looked like a pipe. The two men then fled to a waiting car with its engine running and were driven away by a woman. It was later revealed that just before the attack, at 9:56 p.m., one of the suspects had called Medrano's roommate and asked him to tell Medrano to come outside. Medrano went out, never to be seen alive by his roommate again.
A significant break in the case came the following day. Maryland State Police conducted a traffic stop on a Toyota Corolla on I-70 in Frederick for an equipment violation. The occupants were 21-year-old Efrain Torres-Eusebio and 20-year-old Jose Alberto Santiago-Miguel. A search of their vehicle uncovered drugs, more than $14,000 in cash, and two handguns. Crucially, they also found Santos Medrano's cell phone inside the car's center console.
Both Torres-Eusebio and Santiago-Miguel were arrested and subsequently identified as the primary suspects in Medrano's murder. Warrants were issued charging them with first-degree murder, assault, and various handgun offenses. During legal proceedings, it was detailed that cell phone records placed the suspects in the area of the murder on the night it occurred and then tracked their movement toward Frederick where they were apprehended. Efrain Torres-Eusebio was later sentenced for his role in the crime. He received a 40-year sentence for second-degree murder, a consecutive 20 years for robbery with a deadly weapon, another consecutive 20 years for the use of a firearm in a crime of violence, and a 20-year consecutive sentence for conspiracy to commit murder.
