Crime
The man was initially charged with second-degree murder but agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter, prosecutors said.
May 10, 2026 | 9:50 AM
2 minutes to read
A New Bedford man will serve more than a decade in prison after he pleaded guilty to killing his nephew, prosecutors announced Friday.
Juan Padilla-Santana, 43, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one charge of manslaughter for the death of his nephew, 23-year-old Omil Padilla-Corsino. He was sentenced in Fall River Superior Court to 12 ½ to 17 ½ years in prison, the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
On Aug. 24, 2024, New Bedford police responded to a South Street apartment, where they found Padilla-Corsino suffering from two stab wounds. He was taken to a local hospital and died from his injuries a short time later.
Padilla-Santana was initially indicted for second-degree murder, to which he pleaded not guilty. He stabbed his nephew during an argument, which his attorney, Edward Molari, called “a case of self defense and defense of others.”
Padilla-Corsino and his girlfriend, Yaniksei Santos, lived in the apartment with her mother, Yasira Rodriguez, who was dating Padilla-Santana. Padilla-Corsino and Santos were expecting a child together and planned to have their baby shower the day the stabbing happened, according to a police report.
Santos later told police that Padilla-Corsino said he “had a bad feeling” that day and did not like having his uncle in the apartment. Padilla-Santana had moved in from Puerto Rico the week before.
Padilla-Corsino and Santos continued to argue, and Rodriguez eventually told him he had to leave. This upset Padilla-Corsino, who said he paid rent and could not be kicked out, according to the police report.
As the argument continued, Padilla-Santana came out of a bedroom, at which point Padilla-Corsino “said something like, ‘If you’re going to kick me out already, I’ll give you another reason’” and punched him, the police report states.
Santos and Rodriguez pulled the two men apart, and Santos saw that Padilla-Corsino was bleeding from his stomach. However, both women told police that they did not see a knife during the altercation.
“This was a senseless act of violence which occurred during a physical confrontation that was initiated by the victim,” Bristol District Attorney Thomas Quinn said.
Padilla-Santana told investigators that he was on the phone with his sister while he was in the bedroom and heard his nephew arguing with Santos and Rodriguez. When he left the room, Padilla-Corsino punched him first in the side and then in the head.
Though Padilla-Santana denied having a knife at any point, he said that he saw one on the floor after the stabbing, picked it up, and left it on a vanity in the bedroom, where police later found it. Santos also told police that the uncle and nephew had previously fought months earlier in Puerto Rico.
The DA’s office said Friday that Padilla-Santana made “false and misleading statements” to police and that there was “no evidence” that his nephew was armed at the time of the altercation. Molari referred Boston.com to a sentencing memorandum filed in court but declined to comment further.
“This case demonstrates how fleeting and fragile life can be, and how what feels so promising one moment can vanish the next,” Molari wrote in the memorandum. “It is important for the community to assign responsibility and for those responsible to take it. That is a harder proposition in a case like this where everyone involved feels competing senses of loss and responsibility themselves.”
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