The Murder of Tasha Santiago

Tasha Santiago was a 25-year-old transgender woman living in California. Tasha had spoken of returning to Puerto Rico to spend time with family. At the time of her death, Tasha was working as a prostitute.

On 10th December 1990, the police responded to multiple calls of shots being fired at the Woolley Johnson Motel in California. When they arrived they found the victim, Tasha Santiago, dead on the driveway with shattered glass around her and the murder weapon, a handgun, left at the crime scene. Witnesses recalled seeing a car with two men inside. Officers soon found out that Tasha had been inside the phone box making a call to the police telling them that two men who had attacked her a day previously had turned up where she was and that she was afraid. Tasha was put on hold for one minute and by the time the operator got back to the phone, the phone line was dead. It is believed that as Tasha made the phone call the killers pulled up to the phone box to confront her and kill her.

It was discovered that Tasha had an assault case from one day previous to the murder, she had been jumped by two men in an alleyway but had managed to escape. Todd Alan Thornton, 25, and Jeffrey Todd Hammons, 24, both marines, had met up with Tasha on 9 December 1990, Hammons had paid her for oral sex behind a dumpster while Thornton had kept lookout. Hammons had been unable to ejaculate and blamed Tasha causing an argument to break out, Hammons had shouted for Thornton to cold Tasha down while he beat her but Tasha had escaped. She reported the attack to the police. In a hearing, a fellow marine testified that “He (Hammons) said he was going to go back to find that girl and get his money back,” and that Hammons and Thornton had gone to Hammons’ home to get a gun.

The details of the investigation are unclear, seems that both men went on trial in 1991, although it is difficult to find any information on what happened or what sentences were given. I was also unable to find any photographs of Tasha.