Racine murder case: Miguel Cruz takes plea deal, will be free within a year
Racine murder case: Miguel Cruz takes plea deal
A man sentenced to life in prison in 2021 for a murder in Racine, will now walk free in less than a year. He accepted a guilty plea deal on lesser charges rather than going to a retrial he was granted this spring.
RACINE, Wis. - A man sentenced to life in prison in 2021 for a murder in Racine, will now walk free in less than a year. He accepted a guilty plea deal on lesser charges rather than going to a retrial he was granted this spring.
Plea deal accepted
What we know:
Miguel Cruz, the man convicted in 2021 for murdering Juanita Zdroik, was given a retrial because the credibility of the DNA evidence and some investigators were called into question.
Miguel Cruz in court
Zdroik’s kids spoke at that hearing where they were told Cruz would be free in less than a year.
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"When you were murdered, I didn’t only lose my mom," Zach Zdroik, the son of Juanita, said. "I lost the person that believed in me the most."
Juanita Zdroik
Zach and his family are still numb from the decision.
"It still feels so raw that we don’t know exactly where this leads us," Zach said. "Obviously, my family, we’re heartbroken, distraught."
Even though years of court battles are over – they didn’t get the longer sentencing they wanted.
"So there is a little bit of relief that it’s finally done, but it’s still a very disappointing feeling," Zach said.
Zach Zdroik
Prosecutors say Juanita was killed after witnessing a double homicide and her body was later found on Highway K in the Town of Raymond.
Zach was only 13 years old when his mom was killed, but still, he thinks about her every day.
"Me and my sister carry parts of that with us every day and my mom, despite not being here for 26 years, has never left our side and continues being a strong mother for me and my sister," Zach said.
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Cruz had 3,305 days of time served incarcerated and under supervision. After he is released from prison next year, he will go under extended supervision.
What they're saying:
FOX6 News also reached out to Cruz's two attorneys for an interview. One of Cruz's attorneys did not respond to a request for interview. The other, Natalie Wisco, gave this statement after the story originally aired and published:
"This resolution was a compromise that neither side entered into lightly. The defense position remains clear: Miguel Cruz did not kill Juanita Zdroik, and he did not plead to homicide. We were fully prepared to retry the case and believe the materially different evidentiary record would have supported an acquittal, because the prior conviction was not simply overturned on a technicality.
"The prosecution’s case at the first trial depended heavily on three witnesses who had their own criminal exposure and incentives, together with DNA evidence presented as potentially corroborating their accusations. At retrial, that DNA evidence would instead have been presented correctly as excluding Mr. Cruz from all samples and mixtures. The cooperating witnesses’ personal motives, incentives, expectations, and inconsistencies would have been examined far more fully. The defense was also prepared to present testimony from Joe Kennedy, a retired NCIS Special Agent-in-Charge who created and first managed NCIS's Cold Case Homicide Unit. After reviewing the entire investigative record, he concluded that this became a suspect-based rather than evidence-based investigation; incentivized witnesses were not adequately corroborated; alternative leads were not fully developed; and investigators exhibited tunnel vision and confirmation bias. However, no responsible trial lawyer can ever guarantee what a jury will do, and both sides must always make a reasoned assessment of risk. The State faced a genuine risk of acquittal, while Mr. Cruz faced the risk of being wrongfully convicted of homicide a second time. A negotiated disposition was the only means of eliminating those risks for both sides.
"We believed the parties’ joint recommendation of nine years of initial confinement and ten years of extended supervision was substantial, appropriate, and fully accounted for the seriousness of the amended convictions. We are disappointed that the court declined to follow that recommendation and instead imposed the statutory maximum. However, the court’s sentencing decision does not alter the compromise that led to the resolution.
"Nothing in the defense’s position is intended to diminish the profound impact of Juanita’s death on those who loved her. The grief, anger, and disappointment of her children are entirely understandable. We would never tell them how to feel or ask them to approve of the settlement reached. No legal resolution can undo Juanita’s death or fully address her family’s loss. Our disagreement concerns the reliability of the evidence used to prosecute Mr. Cruz—not the sincerity of Juanita’s family."
Editor's note: This story was updated to include a statement from Wisco on Sept. 10.
Portions of this article were formatted using A.I. FOX6’s Ben Hanson and an editor reviewed it for accuracy and tone prior to publishing.
The Source: Information in this story was gathered from a criminal complaint, Racine County court records, past FOX6 reporting and Zach Zdroik.