Chicago mother exonerated for murder begs detective who framed her ‘to tell the truth’

An Illinois mother who spent five years of a 29-year prison sentence on death row for murder and had her two young sons taken from her before being exonerated has tearfully begged the detective who framed her to ‘tell the truth’ after destroying her family.

Marilyn Mulero is one of eight people in Chicago to be exonerated for murder in the past month as a result of Detective Reynaldo Guevara, 79, being accused of falsifying evidence and intimidating witnesses between 1989 and 1996.

He has never admitted any wrongdoing, has never been convicted – and to this day collects a city pension.

Mulero, 50, was a single mother to two boys, ages 5 and 7, when she was convicted for the 1992 murder of two Latin Kings street gang members.

‘I have no hatred. At this point, he’s almost my dad’s age so I wish him no harm,’ Mularo told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.

‘I just hope that he will finally tell the truth because he destroyed a lot of lives, and not only lives, but he also destroyed families. He lied to the victims’ families as well.’

Mulero, 50, was a single mother to two boys, ages 5 and 7,when she was convicted for the 1992 murder of two Latin Kings street gang members

Mulero is Detective Reynaldo Guevara, 79, first and only female victim to be exonerated. To date, 31 murder convictions have been overturned

Mularo was accused along with two other people for the revenge murders of Jimmy Cruz and Hector Reyes, who were lured to a bathroom and shot dead in Humboldt Park.

‘I didn’t know the victims, I only came across them that night,’ Mulero said. ‘I was a single mother of two. I had a job. I was just trying to live a good life on my own with my mom and my children.’

Mularo at the time was accused by police of being a member of the Maniac Latin Disciples – a gang that rivaled the Latin Kings. On the night of the murder, police said she was with two other women who shot both Cruz and Reyes.

After her arrest, Mulero was relentlessly interrogated by Guevara – then a detective with the Chicago Police Department – for 20 solid hours where he deprived her of sleep and refused to let her speak to an attorney. Detectives even threatened her with the lethal injection unless she confessed to Cruz’s murder.

That false, coerced confession became a death sentence for the then-21 year old.

‘It was hurtful because they [her sons] did not know that I was incarcerated until they saw it on the news,’ a tearful Mularo told DailyMail.com.

‘Every time my children came to see me on death row, I would come in shackled from the waist, my hands down to my ankles, and I would walk in the room all chained up.’

She described how one of her sons would use quarters to try to undo the handcuffs, so that she could go home.

‘My youngest started to have ADD and anxiety issues. To this day, both of my sons are still traumatized by this situation.’

‘I don’t think of them as grown men. I still dream of them as toddlers because that’s how I left them.’

Today, Mulero’s sons each have a son and daughter of their own now. Always a tight- knit family, Marilyn even lived with one of her sons and his family when she was released from prison.

Mulero, pictured with her brother Ellis Rivera before he died, told DailyMail.com that she is now working to rebuild her relationship with her family

Mulero said it was overwhelming being a free woman and being able to reunite with her sons. She is pictured before being released from prison 

Mulero said being on death row was ‘barbaric’ and she was subjected to conditions and saw things that no one human should go through or see

Mulero says she will never forget – or forgive – the pain of being on death row because she was sentenced without a trial after accepting an open plea on the advice of her legal counsel.

‘I did not know all the legal terminology so I did not know that I was already sentenced to death,’ she said.

‘The bailiffs asked me, ‘Are you aware of what just happened here? And I’m like, no,’ and they explained to me that I was just sentenced to death by lethal injection.

They took me back to the unit and the ladies were crying and they’re like, ‘Oh, my God, oh, my God, they’re gonna f***ing kill you!’ That’s when it became real.’

Mulero said being on death row was ‘barbaric’ and she was subjected to conditions and saw things that no one human should go through or see.

‘There was a little young lady with me at Logan Correctional Center, and she was 32 years old. Her name was Shirley and she used to call me grandma.The male correctional officers there treated us like garbage, like we were nothing. They called us every name in the book,’ Muerlo said.

‘Shirley told the warden, ‘I’m having [suicidal] thoughts, and I don’t want to be here, take me out of here,’ and the warden said, ‘Well, if you feel like committing suicide, go ahead and commit suicide.’ The next day Shirley hung herself and it hit me and the ladies in the unit really hard.’

‘Many of these women have psychiatric issues. A correctional facility is supposed to lift up people and help them. It’s not supposed to destroy somebody’s life.’

Mulero said it was overwhelming being a free woman and being able to reunite with her sons.

‘It felt good. Very emotional – but good. It felt like 70-pounds lifted from my shoulders,’ she said.

‘It felt good knowing that I no longer have to carry this burden with me. I feel for the victims’ parents too. I’m sorry that they’ve had to relive this moment over and over again. I keep them in my prayers and hope that they can find closure.’

Mulero said she is now working on rebuilding her life, and her relationship with her sons. She is going back to school to train as a barber, and has submitted an application for the Illinois Prison Project application to become an ambassador for change in the prison system and an advocate for other women behind bars.

She added that she does not view all police officers as she does Guevara.

‘I’m not saying that all police officers are bad because they’re not. Everyone’s a human being. Everyone’s compassionate, we all have a heart. Some people just find it in their heart to just be corrupted, you know, and there’s nothing you can do about those people,’ she said.

Mulero is Guevara’s first and only female victim of Guevara to be exonerated. To date, 31 murder convictions have been overturned.

When asked about Mulero’s exoneration, a spokesperson for Chicago’s Corporation Counsel, which represents Guevara, said, ‘The City has no comment.’

After Mulero and seven other people were exonerated in early August, DA Kim Foxx announced that she was reviewing possible charges against Guevara, who retired in 2005.

In a press conference announcing the exonerations, Foxx said: ‘Could we try these cases again today without the work of Detective Guevara? Based on our review, we are not able to retry these cases.’

She added additional investigations could be conducted ‘to see if, in fact, someone else committed these crimes.’

Guevara has never admitted any wrongdoing and has repeatedly invoked his constitutional rights against self-incrimination or insisted that he could not remember facts when questioned under oath.

In one case, after he was granted immunity by prosecutors, he answered repeatedly he did not remember confessions he elicited from two men convicted of murder. And when he took the stand in a separate federal court in a civil lawsuit brought by a man who’d spent 21 years in prison, Guevara invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 200 times.

In both those cases, the City of Chicago paid out millions to the men involved, including one payment for $20.5 million, and another for $17 million.

Guevara and the city have dozens of other lawsuits pending against them.

Seven of the inmates exonerated by Chicago and released from prison after decades behind bars

David Colon: 26 years

David Colon, who now goes by David Lugo, was in jail for 26 years for the 1991 murder of 16-year-old Michael Velez in Chicago.

The youngster was shot multiple times but Colon always maintained his innocence.

He was released in 2017 on parole but was acquitted on Friday.

David Colon, who now goes by David Lugo, was in jail for 26 years for the 1991 murder of 16-year-old Michael Velez in Chicago

Nelson Gonzalez: 22 years

Nelson Gonzalez, now 53, was released from prison in 2013 after serving 22 years for a murder he says he did not commit.

He claimed he was set up b Guevara and other officers and called for charges to be brought against him.

He said he was going back to school to study criminal justice.

Nelson Gonzalez, 53, was released from prison in 2013 after 22 years

He told the Chicago Sun: ‘I would love to be a lawyer. I know what the journey is, so I can speak from both sides.

‘So, that’s what I’m gonna be focused on, and family, and making sure my mom’s OK, and continue to help the community.

‘I’m not going to give up just because I was vindicated.’ 

Marilyn Mulero: 28 years, five on death row

Marilyn Mulero spent 28 years behind bars for a shooting that left two men dead in 1992.

Five of these had been spent languishing on death row.

She had been charged with two other women with luring two gang members to a park where they were shot dead.

Mulero was interrogated by Guevara and other cops where she said she was denied sleep for 20 hours before signing a confession.

She told CBS after her conviction was dropped: ‘I did several years on Death Row for a crime I didn’t commit. I stayed strong. I maintained my faith in God.’

Marilyn Mulero spent 28 years behind bars for a shooting that left two men dead in 1992

Innocence Project co-director Lauren Kaeseberg said: ‘Marilyn was just 21 when she was ripped away from her two young sons, terrorized by a corrupt police detective, and then convicted and sentenced to die in prison for a crime she did not commit.

‘While former Det. Guevara is a real-life example of evil and terror, the exoneration of Marilyn and these other innocent men is a shining example of perseverance and a testament to the power of the human spirit.’

Jaime Rios: 18 years

Jaime Rios was convicted of the June 27, 1989 shooting of Luis Morales where the victim was blasted to death in an alleyway in Chicago.

He was arrested on suspicion of the murder but claimed Guevara hit him in the head with a flashlight.

Rios also alleges another cop pushed his head on the table and threatened to have his young son stripped from hi, if he did not confess.

He spent 18 years in prison before being released.

Carlos Andino: 28 years

Carlos Andino was arrested over the 1994 murder of a Polish immigrant.

It started when three siblings – Kathy, 10, Kimberly, 11, and Christopher Smith, 14, had been standing in their apartment doorway waiting for their mother to let them in.

Nearby a thug approached a man using a payphone and demanded his pager and cash.

The man, Polish immigrant Matt Dibicki, refused and he was shot dead from point-blank range.

Alfredo Gonzalez had been serving a life sentence in Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill for a 1990 murder

Police claimed Andino was named in an anonymous tip off as the killer.

But two of the Smith children had said the shooter had a teardrop tattoo under his eye, which Andino did not have.

Despite this, the claimed he was the murderer.

Kathy later revealed Guevara had visited their home and showed them a photo of him and said he was the killer.

Andino was arrested on August 18, 1994, and handed a lawyer who also represented Guevara in a range of civil cases.

Alfredo Gonzalez: 32 years

Alfredo Gonzalez had been serving a life sentence in Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill for a 1990 murder.

He spent 32 years of his 64 years of life behind bars and missed his daughter’s wedding.

Alfredo Gonzalez had been serving a life sentence in Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill for a 1990 murder

Ahead of his release, she told the Chicago Tribune: ‘We’ve been waiting for a very long time.

‘My dad got taken away from us when I was 3, my brother was 7.

‘We are just ready to drive over there and pick him up.’

Gonzalez said ‘I’m free’ as he cried and embraced his daughter outside the prison. He added: ‘I had a broken heart, because I wasn’t attentive.’

Johnny Flores: 20 years

Johnny Flores was released from prison after his conviction was dropped following 20 years behind bars.

He was convicted despite a key witness at the time admitting he had been high and drunk at the time.

Johnny Flores was released from prison after his conviction was dropped following 20 years behind bars