A brutal gangbanger who stabbed his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend to death, dragged him naked down a Brooklyn street, and whispered something in his ear as he died will spend the rest of his life behind bars, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Michael Israel, 39, threatened to get violent with his ex hours before the Jan. 12, 2020 murder of James Santiago, sending her a message that read “die with ya lie” and saying in a FaceTime call he’d come to her home and “f— her up” for sleeping with another man, prosecutors said.
He did just as he threatened, heading out from Harlem and breaking into his former girlfriend’s Coney Island home on W. 15th St. near Neptune Ave. Once there, he beat her so badly he left her bruised with two black eyes.
He did far worse to the 42-year-old Santiago, stabbing him seven times “in his most vital organs, leaving no chance of survival,” senior assistant D.A. Chelsea Toder wrote in a Sept. 2 letter to Brooklyn Supreme Court Michael Kitsis.
“Next, (Israel) dragged James Santiago’s body – naked, except for a t-shirt, and bloody – out of the home, down a long pathway, and out onto the street. (Israel) then took the victim’s t-shirt and fled the scene with James’ shirt in his hands,” Toder wrote. “(Israel) chose to leave James bloody, crawling around in the middle of the street, and to top it off – whispered something in his ear before (Israel) left him to die naked and alone.”
A jury found Israel guilty of first-degree murder, burglary, assault and endangering the welfare of a child on June 26, 2026. Kitsis sentenced Israel, who has a lengthy criminal record and is a Bloods gang member, to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
His ex and the mother of his child, Jennifer Ortiz, took the stand to describe years of abuse, telling the jury about how he stayed with him and he became bolder with that abuse, Toder wrote.
She even secured the $100,000 bond to spring him from jail in April 2019 after he was charged with attempted murder for shooting a man in the Bronx three months earlier — leaving him free to beat her and kill Santiago, the Daily News reported in 2020.
“This was a chilling and calculated attack on an innocent man and woman by a defendant with a long history of domestic abuse. Not only did he commit a brutal murder, but he also shattered the sanctity and safety of a family’s home,” Brooklyn D.A. Eric Gonzalez said Tuesday. “I hope that today’s sentence brings some solace to James Santiago’s relatives, including his devastated mother, who lost her son in such a violent and cruel manner.”
Israel took the stand in his own defense, admitting to the killing but claiming extreme emotional distress.
“(Isreal) got up on the stand and accused Mr. Santiago of laying naked with a small child on his penis, now not only defiling Mr. Santiago’s body, but his reputation,” Toder wrote.
But “not one shred of evidence” supported his version of the events, and other evidence of the crime contradicted his story, the prosecutor wrote.
“At no point did (Israel) show remorse for the killing or his assault on Ms. Ortiz, casting her as a delinquent parent and a drunk,” she wrote, adding, “This case was motivated by domestic violence, by a belief system that (Israel) could control Ms. Ortiz, her life, and the men she chose to date through violence. James Santiago – who had only come on the scene recently prior to the homicide – was just a brutal casualty here.”
Attorneys for Israel said that the sentencing “is not the end of the legal process.”
“While we respect the jury system and the difficult task the jurors faced, we strongly believe the outcome was inconsistent with the evidence at trial,” his attorneys Adam Bolotin and Darren Winslow said. “This is a devastating result for Mr. Israel and his family.”
