Death
On November 9, 2002, Santana was fatally shot one time in the head while sitting in the passenger seat of a parked car in Crenshaw. He was 26 years old. Santana was buried on November 18, 2002 at Saint Raymond's Cemetery in The Bronx, New York.
Damien Andre Gates was later convicted of the first-degree murder of Santana and the attempted murder of another man in the car, and was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences plus 70 years in prison. Brandon Douglas Bynes received a 23-year sentence after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon. An officer involved in the case testified that Monique King, reportedly Gates' girlfriend and aged 15 at the time of Santana's death, falsely claimed that Santana had tried to rape her, which prompted Gates and Bynes to attack the car. King received eight years in juvenile custody.
Read more about this topic: Merlin Santana
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“when it comes to my death let it be slow,
let it be pantomime, this last peep show,
so that I may squat at the edge trying on
my black necessary trousseau.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“So much of motion, is so much of life, and so much of joy—and ... to stand still, or get on but slowly, is death and the devil.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“For the sake of goodness and love, man shall let death have no sovereignty over his thoughts.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)