Arrested in 1992 for the abduction and rape of a Boynton Beach teenager, 22-year-old Jose Santos bonded out of jail and promptly vanished. Authorities found him more than three decades later in Texas, where he'd married, raised four daughters and worked as a mechanic.
Now 56, Santos returned to a West Palm Beach courtroom on Wednesday and wept. His daughters listened from the courtroom gallery as a prosecutor described the day Santos followed a 15-year-old girl off a Tri-Rail train, dragged her to a patch of woods and assaulted her while she struggled and screamed.
"He carried a 4-foot-11, 79-pound child into a neighboring wooded area, where there would be no witnesses to see what he would do next," Assistant State Attorney Gabriel Montiel said.
"She fought, she screamed, and he removed her clothes. He choked her, and he raped her."
Passersby heard her screams and called police. After a half-hour search involving 10 officers, police dogs and a helicopter, officers found Santos walking along Interstate 95. He initially said he and the girl were old friends and lovers before confessing, after 30 minutes, that he'd raped her.
Doctors at Bethesda Memorial Hospital swabbed the girl, then a high school freshman, for her assailant's DNA. She told investigators she didn't know her attacker, and that she'd first seen him that morning after taking the Tri-Rail to Lake Worth Beach from Boynton Beach to meet a friend.
The girl said Santos trailed her during the hourlong walk from the station to her friend's house and made lewd remarks all the way. She saw him again, hours later, when she returned to the Lake Worth Beach station for her trip back home.
The girl said she was afraid of Santos and tried to hide her face so he would leave her alone. He spotted her anyway and followed her onto the train, trailing her each time she tried to move away. He told her she was pretty, she said, and that he "wanted her."
"This was an innocent 15-year-old girl with her whole life ahead of her," Montiel said Wednesday. "And what he did to her that day, she will never forget."
Fugitive's daughters urge judge to see Santos as they do
Santos spent five days in the Palm Beach County Jail in 1992 before posting a $25,000 bond and fleeing the state. Arrested again in December 2023, a judge declined to set bail and ordered him to await his trial from jail.
Santos pleaded guilty to kidnapping, sexual battery and lewd assault charges in July, days before his trial was scheduled to begin. He did so without first negotiating a deal with prosecutors, leaving the newly appointed Circuit Judge Jeff Martz, a former prosecutor, to decide his punishment.
Two of Santos' daughters flew to West Palm Beach to testify at their father's sentencing hearing. They urged Martz to judge Santos not only by his crime, but by the life he'd built in the decades since.
"I simply hope that the complete person is considered, too," said Roxana Membrano, 29. "The father who put food on our table, who encourages his daughters to go to school and have careers, the father who was happy to reunite with his son, the grandfather who enjoys spending time with his grandchildren."
"We cannot change what has already happened, but we can continue to hope and pray for a future where he can eventually come home," she said.
'This crime was brutal,' prosecutor says
Because the rape occurred in 1992, Martz was required to sentence him according to the laws at the time, which capped the penalty at 12 years. Santos' attorney, Gregg Lerman, suggested a sentence of five and one-half years instead, noting he was "probably the only person here that actually practiced law when those guidelines were in effect."
Lerman called Santos a "changed person," one who pleaded guilty, in part, to spare his victim the trauma of a trial. Lerman added that despite his daughters' hope for an eventual homecoming, Santos, born in Honduras, will likely be deported upon his release from prison.
The attorney said Santos was not a legal U.S. resident, though he'd bought a house, maintained a mortgage, paid his taxes and supported his family. Notwithstanding the sexual assault and lack of citizenship, Lerman continued, "he otherwise led a law-abiding life."
Montiel disagreed. He asked Martz to order the 12-year maximum, adding that he would ask for more if he could.
"This crime was brutal," the prosecutor said. "Thirty-one years, (this victim) has waited. She has moved on with her life, to the extent that she has to keep putting one foot after the other, but this was never resolved. There was never justice for her until today."
The woman, now 49 and married, watched the exchange from the courtroom gallery. She declined Montiel's offer to address the judge but agreed before the hearing that Santos deserved the maximum.
Martz thought so, too. He called the charges "egregious," then sentenced Santos to 12 years in prison.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Rapist who dragged Boynton teen into woods jailed decades later︱Exclusive
