Angel Gonzalez

The Crime

Shortly before 10 p.m. on July 10, 1994, a 35-year-old woman was kidnapped from her apartment building in Waukegan, Illinois. She was driven about a mile away, where she was raped by two men.

Afterwards, the woman was disoriented and scared. She wandered about for a while and approached a house, but no one came to the door. She eventually made it to a convenience store around 12:20 a.m., more than two hours after the attack. After the police arrived, they spent about 20 minutes calming the woman, before they accompanied her back to her apartment. Her boyfriend arrived at about 1 a.m.

The Investigation

The victim said her attackers were Hispanic males in a late-model, dark-colored, four-door sedan with tinted windows.

Shortly after hearing this description, the boyfriend noticed a 1979 Cadillac sedan with tinted windows driving out of the building’s parking lot. He didn’t think the car belonged to anyone who lived in the building.

Police were unable to stop the car, but one officer managed to record the license plate number. Not long after, officers spotted the car on the road and pulled over the driver. It was 20-year-old Angel Gonzalez, who was then arrested and put in a squad car. Officers brought the victim to the scene, where she identified Mr. Gonzalez as one of her attackers.

Mr. Gonzalez, who had no criminal record, was taken to the police station and given a paper jumpsuit to wear. He was left alone until the following morning when detectives began their interrogation. Then, Mr. Gonzalez explained that he and his girlfriend, Karina Cantu, had spent the evening watching television with Karina’s sister, Myrna, who lived in the same apartment complex as the victim.

Mr. Gonzalez, who had come to the U.S. from Mexico less than two years earlier and was not conversant in English, was interrogated in both English and Spanish. According to the detectives, after two hours of questioning, Mr. Gonzalez began telling a story “piecemeal” that ultimately turned into a confession.

The detectives stated that Mr. Gonzalez’s story began when he was driving on Tenth Street. A man he didn’t know flagged him down to ask for a ride to a nightclub. He agreed, but decided to first stop at Myrna’s apartment on the way. When he rang the bell, the victim came to the door instead. 

At this point, the other man approached and both men grabbed the woman. Together, they forced her into the car and drove to Belvidere Park, where they raped her.

Finally, the detectives said that Mr. Gonzalez mentioned dropping off the man and driving back to Myrna’s apartment, where he watched TV with her and his girlfriend until 1 a.m.

The Trial

Mr. Gonzalez went to trial in Lake County Circuit Court in June 1995. The prosecution’s primary evidence against him was the victim’s identification of him and his confession, although the confession was riddled with inaccuracies.

For one, Mr. Gonzalez didn’t know where the rape occurred. In his confession, he had specified a different location from the one the victim had described. Additionally, the victim had been raped at two locations, while Mr. Gonzalez only mentioned one. He had also described how both men had grabbed the victim and covered her mouth, details the victim never confirmed.

Mr. Gonzalez’s girlfriend, Karina, and her sister, Myrna, testified that they had spent the evening with him, watching television in Myrna’s apartment. Two friends, Blanca Martinez and her sister, Marlen, testified that Mr. Gonzalez and Karina had stopped by their home shortly after 8 p.m. before they went to Taco Bell to get some food.

On June 15, a jury convicted Mr. Gonzalez of rape and kidnapping. He was sentenced to 55 years in prison.

The Exoneration

The Innocence Project began reinvestigating Mr. Gonzalez’s case in August 2012. With the Illinois Innocence Project as local counsel, they sought DNA testing of the case evidence.

In March 2013, the Innocence Project asked the Lake County State’s Attorney’s office to consent to testing after Michael Nerheim took office. Less than a month later, Mr. Nerheim agreed. A testing order was entered on April 15.  

The evidence — the shorts and tampon worn by the victim at the time of the crime — was delivered to Orchid Cellmark laboratory in Maryland. After several rounds of testing, results obtained on Jan. 30, 2015 identified the DNA profiles of two different men. Neither matched Mr. Gonzalez. After seeing the test results, Mr. Nerheim agreed to vacate Mr. Gonzalez’s convictions. On March 9, 2015, the convictions were vacated and the charges were dismissed.

In June 2015, Mr. Gonzalez was granted a certificate of innocence in Lake County Circuit Court. Stephen Scheller, who had prosecuted Mr. Gonzalez at his trial, shook Mr. Gonzalez’s hand and apologized. Mr. Gonzalez was awarded $220,000 in state compensation. He also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit that was settled in July 2018 for $9.5 million.