Chicago City Hall
CHICAGO — Two Mexican men who were convicted of the brutal stabbing deaths of a Chicago couple, allegedly to help a woman steal their baby, are poised to get nearly $14 million from the city of Chicago over their claims they were coerced by cops into confessing to the murders, even though Cook County's former top prosecutor has testified she and other prosecutors never stopped believing the men were guilty of the crime.
On Sept. 14, the Chicago City Council's Finance Committee voted overwhelmingly to recommend the full council approve the settlements with Gabriel Solache and Arturo DeLeon-Reyes.
The deals were first announced in Chicago federal court earlier this spring and summer, as part of the men's lawsuits, seeking payment from the city for their alleged wrongful prosecution and convictions for the murders of Mariano and Jacinta Soto in 1998.
Terms of the deals were not disclosed in court. However, the settlements were subject to approval by the Chicago City Council, and when they landed at the Finance Committee, city documents reported the settlements were worth a combined $13.75 million, with $6 million for Solache and $7.75 million for DeLeon-Reyes.
Both DeLeon-Reyes and Solache claim they were coerced by former Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara and at least one other Chicago Police officer into confessing to killing Mariano and Jacinta Soto in 1998.
Solache and Reyes were convicted and sentenced to prison, after they both confessed to assisting in stabbing the Sotos to death in their home in Chicago. Prosecutors said the men allegedly helped kill the Sotos to help abduct their two children on behalf of Adriana Mejia, so Mejia could allegedly fulfill her dream of becoming a mother.
Both men recanted their confessions and accused Chicago police officers of coercing them.
Reyes and Solache were eventually exonerated and freed when then-Cook County State's Attorney Foxx declined in 2017 to pursue new trials against either man.
The men swiftly filed lawsuits against the city and the police officers involved.
They were later presented with so-called “certificates of innocence” by Cook County judges in 2022 and 2023, respectively, after Foxx's office again conspicuously declined to contest their innocence claims.
However, those decisions by Foxx's office have become a new focus in court.
In a separate case brought by two women who also claim they were coerced into confessing to murder by Guevara and other Chicago Police officers, Foxx has already been questioned under oath about her office's moves to essentially provide a runway for the lawsuits against the city to take flight.
And in her testimony, Foxx revealed her office decided to not oppose the innocence petitions, even though she and other prosecutors believed both Solache and DeLeon-Reyes were guilty of the crimes for which they had been convicted.
Generally, such certificates of innocence can only be obtained when someone who has been convicted of a crime persuades a judge that they are actually innocent — a legal standard upheld by the Illinois Supreme Court as recently as October 2025.
Typically, that process is adversarial, as prosecutors routinely argue against granting such proclamations to people against whom their offices had earlier secured convictions.
However, court records revealed that Foxx's office apparently decided to stop opposing certificate of innocence petitions, and particularly from anyone convicted in cases in which Guevara participated.
Guevara has stood at the center of scores of cases accusing him of wrongful convictions, alleging he improperly coerced confessions and framed those later convicted of crimes, including murder.
To date, published reports have indicated the city of Chicago has paid $142 million to settle 14 lawsuits in which Guevara is linked to alleged wrongful prosecutions for murder.
There are still dozens of lawsuits pending involving misconduct accusations against Guevara, including Solache and DeLeon-Reyes, and two women in separate proceedings who were granted certificates of innocence after prosecutors essentially allowed them to walk free, despite their confessions to participating in the murder of rival gang members.
Former Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx
In Foxx's testimony, she further confirmed hat the decision in 2022 and 2023 to not oppose the certificate of innocence petitions came after high-level meetings with representatives from the Exoneration Project, a Chicago group tied to lawyers who have secured many millions of dollars in payouts from the city on behalf of people who claim they were wrongfully convicted.
While officially a non-profit organization associated with the University of Chicago School of Law, the Exoneration Project is led by lawyers from the Chicago firm of Loevy & Loevy, who are regularly and prominently involved in suing the city of Chicago over alleged wrongful convictions.
The Loevy firm has represented DeLeon-Reyes in his lawsuit.
Foxx's deposition was a flashpoint in the DeLeon-Reyes and Solache case, as lawyers for the city and defendant officers indicated they intended to use the testimony to combat the men's "innocence" claims at a trial over DeLeon-Reyes’ claims.
City lawyers have noted judges overseeing the cases blocked attorneys representing the city and defendant police officers from conducting discovery to learn more about why Foxx decided to stand down and simply allow the men to obtain certificates of innocence without opposition.
They further have noted Foxx's office staunchly opposed any inquiries into the COI decisions.
That policy changed under new Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke, who replaced Foxx in 2025, after Foxx opted not to seek reelection in 2024.
The settlements with Solache and DeLeon-Reyes ultimately canceled their trials, which had been scheduled to go to a jury in May 2026.
While Solache and DeLeon-Reyes and their lawyers appear to be on course to get paid under the settlements, lawyers for the city and defendant police officers are continuing their pursuit of answers to fill in the blanks left by Foxx's testimony concerning how and why the Cook County State's Attorney's Office under Foxx decided to allow so many people formerly convicted of murder secure certificates of innocence they needed to sue the city for millions.
Those defense lawyers, for instance, have been cleared by a judge to also question under oath Foxx's top lieutenant, former Cook County First Assistant State's Attorney Risa Lanier.
At the Chicago Finance Committee, only one alderman on the committee, Ald. Ray Lopez, voted to oppose the settlements. During the Sept. 14 meeting, Lopez cited Foxx's testimony in explaining his opposition to the settlements.
During the meeting, lawyers for the city asserted that the settlements represented the least costly exit for the city from the litigation. City lawyers told Finance Committee members that, if the case were to go to trial, the city could be on the hook for collective judgments of $40-$80 million, plus an additional $12 million in attorney fees for Solache's and DeLeon-Reyes' lawyers.
The settlements will advance to the full City Council for final approval, likely during the City Council's next regular meeting beginning Sept. 23.
Solache is represented by attorneys with the People's Law Office firm, of Chicago
DeLeon-Reyes is represented by attorneys Anand Swaminathan, Jon Loevy, Alyssa Martinez, Steve Art and Sean Starr, of the Loevy + Loevy firm, of Chicago.
