On May 12, 1992 Jacqueline Montanez, a member of the Maniac Latin Disciples, was involved with the murders of rival Latin King gang members Hector Reyes and Jimmy Cruz in Humboldt Park, Chicago. According to police Montanez shot Reyes and then later gave her gun to Marilyn Mulero: who subsequently shot Cruz. The three women involved were arrested within 24 hours of the crime. This story made headlines for a couple reasons; for one it involved retaliation against male gang members by female gang members and also because Montanez was only 15 when she committed the crime. Since the severity of her crime was extreme, Montanez was prosecuted in an adult court as opposed to a juvenile court. It only took the jury two days to determine probable cause. Video evidence along with testimony Montanez gave police was enough for the jury to make a decision On August 6, 1993 Montanez, then 17, was convicted of two first degree murder charges by a Cook County Court jury. Under the law of accountability Montanez was not only responsible for her actions but for Mulero’s actions as well, thus the two counts of first degree murder.
Montanez was later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Since Montanez was 15 when the murders took place the death penalty was out of the question. Despite the fact that she was tried as an adult the death penalty could not be applied due to the Supreme Court case of Thompson v. Oklahoma (1988): which prohibited offenders of 15 years of age or else from receiving the death penalty. A year later in the case of Stanford vs. Kentucky (1989) the Supreme Court ruled that offenders of at least 16 years of age could receive the death penalty. These two cases are fairly significant with regard to Jacqueline Montanez case because she committed the crime shortly before her 16th birthday. Had she been 16
