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Chinatown Strangler Found Guilty of Murdering Date

By DNAinfo Staff on August 3, 2010 6:49pm  | Updated on August 4, 2010 6:03am

Michael Lenahan was found guilty of murder on Tuesday.
Michael Lenahan was found guilty of murder on Tuesday.
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NY Daily News File Photo/Marc Hermann

By Shayna Jacobs

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT —  A man accused of strangling his date in his Chinatown apartment after taking her to a strip club in 2008 was convicted of second-degree murder by a Manhattan judge on Tuesday.

Michael Lenahan let the body of his victim, 24-year-old Lorna Santiago, decompose on his bed for three days before his mother discovered the rotting corpse, according to trial testimony.

Lenahan, 32, claimed her death was an accident, saying in testimony that he put her in a choke hold to restrain her during a scuffle over money but did not mean to kill her.

Proscutors suggested he killed Santiago to cover up the fact that he raped or attempted to rape her and feared the legal repercussions.

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Charles Solomon, who presided over the bench trial, decided the killing was intentional and convicted Lenahan of murdering Santiago.

Solomon could have alternatively found Lenahan guilty of manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide.

Santiago's family cried and thanked prosecutors in the courthouse hallway after the murder conviction.

"We miss her terribly and although we know that she is in ia much better place today, we feel like just for a second we're all together," said her brother, Rick Santiago, 36.

Lorna Santaigo had just moved to the New York area and was working in Manhattan as a state department passport inspector at the time of her death.

Lenahan was unemployed and living in his grandmother's apartment at 20 Confucius Plaza.

He faces up to 25 years in prison when he's sentenced in October.