Under oath, Foxx says she believed exonerated men were guilty in ‘heinous’ Bucktown murders – Image for illustrative purposes only (Image credits: upload.wikimedia.org)
Chicago – In a deposition that has rippled through ongoing wrongful conviction battles, former Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx revealed under oath her firm belief that two men, now officially exonerated, actually committed the savage 1998 stabbing deaths of a Bucktown couple. The testimony, given last month, underscores lingering tensions in cases tied to disgraced Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara. One of the men stands to gain a massive settlement from the city, while the other heads to trial soon.
Persistent Doubts in a High-Profile Double Murder
Foxx directly addressed the 1998 killings of Mariano and Jacinta Soto during more than four hours of questioning. She stated that she personally viewed Arturo DeLeon-Reyes and Gabriel Solache as responsible for what she described as a “heinous act of murder.” Despite their exonerations and certificates of innocence, Foxx maintained that the evidence pointed squarely at them.
Her office had granted Guevara immunity to testify in their cases, a decision she defended by citing her conviction in their guilt alongside awareness of the detective’s troubled record. Foxx explained that this step aimed to clarify the facts, even as doubts about Guevara’s credibility mounted. The men had faced life sentences and the death penalty, respectively, before Governor George Ryan commuted death row in 2003.
Guevara’s Shadow Over Dozens of Convictions
The prosecutions of DeLeon-Reyes and Solache hinged on confessions extracted by Guevara, whose tactics have unraveled in at least 43 murder exonerations. Most of those reversals occurred under Foxx’s watch, leading to settlements that have drained tens of millions from Chicago taxpayers. Earlier this year alone, the city paid out $29 million across four such cases.
A turning point came in a 2017 hearing before Judge James Obbish, who accused Guevara of outright perjury despite the immunity from Foxx’s office. Obbish questioned why anyone would trust the detective’s earlier statements if he lied under oath. Eight days later, prosecutors dropped the charges, and federal authorities deported the men to Mexico due to their immigration status.
Both pursued federal lawsuits in 2018 and sought certificates of innocence for formal vindication and compensation eligibility. Foxx’s administration resisted for nearly five years before quietly dropping opposition. Solache secured his certificate in November 2022, followed by DeLeon-Reyes the next year.
Ad-Libbed Speech Fuels New Legal Battles
The deposition stemmed from a federal suit by Marilyn Mulero and Madeline Mendoza, exonerated in a separate 1992 Humboldt Park double murder also linked to Guevara. Foxx repeatedly professed no memory of key details in their cases or the reviews her office conducted. Governor JB Pritzker granted Mulero clemency in 2020 over prosecutorial objections; her conviction fell later that year, with Mendoza’s in 2023.
Questioners highlighted Foxx’s April 2023 speech at a City Club of Chicago luncheon, where she impromptu declared she would skip a third term. Discarding prepared notes, she spotlighted several exonerees, including Mulero, whom she met briefly beforehand. Foxx recounted Mulero’s emotional introduction and then proclaimed off the cuff that the woman had served decades for a crime she did not commit, based on a corrupt officer’s work.
“I certainly regret making an off-the-cuff statement about Ms. Mulero’s case,” Foxx later testified. She clarified that her words echoed Mulero’s own account in the moment’s emotion, not any official finding. Attorneys noted Mulero now cites those remarks in her lawsuit and innocence petition, a development Foxx said surprised her.
Ongoing Fallout and Courtroom Horizons
Solache’s lawyers recently negotiated a settlement with Chicago so substantial it requires City Council sign-off, typically reserved for amounts over $100,000. Details remain under wraps, but approval looms. DeLeon-Reyes’s team, meanwhile, gears up for a federal jury trial next week and moved to exclude Foxx’s deposition comments from evidence.
These revelations arrive amid broader scrutiny of prosecutorial decisions in Guevara-linked probes. The detective’s lawyer probed Foxx on meetings with the Exoneration Project, tied to a firm aggressive in city lawsuits. Foxx’s testimony lays bare the complexities of revisiting old convictions, where personal beliefs clash with judicial outcomes and mounting civil claims.
As these cases advance, they highlight the enduring cost of flawed investigations in Chicago. Taxpayers foot the bills, families seek closure, and questions persist about when evidence truly seals guilt or innocence. The deposition offers a rare window into one prosecutor’s unyielding stance amid waves of exonerations.
