An 18-year-old Omaha man will spend more than 60 years in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder and three other felonies in the 2021 killing of 14-year-old Isabella Santiago.
A Douglas County District Court judge on Monday sentenced Christian Hernandez-Polanco to 100 to 160 years on all four counts. He must serve 66½ years before becoming eligible for parole and will be credited with just over 2½ years of time served.
Judge Jeffrey Lux sentenced Hernandez-Polanco to 60 to 80 years for first-degree murder, 20 to 40 years for discharging a firearm at an occupied vehicle and 10 to 20 years on each of two counts of use of a firearm to commit a felony. The sentences are to be served one after the other.
Santiago, who was a freshman at Omaha South High School at the time of her death, was in the back seat of a Ford Focus with her stepbrother and another teen on the evening of Dec. 22, 2021. Hernandez-Polanco fired 10 shots into their vehicle, striking Santiago once with the bullet piercing her heart and lung.
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According to testimony from detectives, Hernandez-Polanco was in a BMW with four other teens on the night of the shooting. Samuel Lopez, 18, who drove the BMW, was sentenced last month to 10 to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to being an accessory to first-degree murder. Lopez and Hernandez-Polanco were both 16 at the time of the killing.
Prosecutors said the shooting stemmed from a feud between two rival gangs — the “Get Money Squad,†or GMS, which Hernandez-Polanco was allegedly involved in, and Mafios Locos, which Santiago’s stepbrother said he was associated with. Santiago is not believed to have been associated with either group.
Santiago’s stepbrother later told police the group had been repeatedly driving past a home near 39th and R Streets where GMS members hung out while honking and playing loud Christmas music in order to instigate a fight.
After the group in the Ford Focus drove past the home twice while swerving and honking, according to court documents, Hernandez-Polanco told Lopez to follow the Ford Focus eastbound on Q Street.
As Lopez pulled up alongside the Ford Focus, according to court documents, he told Hernandez-Polanco how to roll down the back passenger seat window, which was malfunctioning. Hernandez-Polanco rolled down the window and shot 10 times at the Ford Focus.
Both occupants of the Ford Focus initially denied knowing the shooter, but voluntarily returned to Omaha Police Headquarters two days afterward to identify Hernandez-Polanco. According to testimony at the preliminary hearing, two other teens in the car with Hernandez-Polanco also identified him as the shooter.
In 2022, attorneys for Hernandez-Polanco filed to have his case transferred to Juvenile Court, arguing he was highly amenable to treatment. The transfer motion was denied — a decision later affirmed by the Nebraska Court of Appeals.
kevin.cole@owh.com, 402-444-1272