Raymond Santana and Deelishis are now Engaged

If you’ve seen the Netflix series, “When They See Us”, or if you’re aware of 'TheCentral Park Five’, then the name Raymond Santana Jr. should sound familiar. Last week, Santana decided to ask his girlfriend, Deelishish, a reality TV star, to take his hand in marriage, and she said yes! He admitted that his relationship with his current fiancee began with a little flirting through Instagram, and from there it has been an amazing journey for the past couple of months. To surprise Deelishis, Santana acted as if he had an attitude before he pulled out the giant ring and asked her to marry him. The happy couple couldn’t keep the news to themselves, so they both shared videos of their special moments on their instagram pages (@iamsodeelishis / @santanaraymond). The Divah Filez wishes the best for the newly engaged couple and we can’t wait to see what they have planned for the wedding.

If you haven’t watched the series or heard of the ‘Central Park Five’, I will give you a little backstory. In 1989, there were five suspects involved in a case known as the ‘Central Park Jogger Case’ who were indicted and later prosecuted for sexual assault and rape charges against a white woman who was jogging in the park, Trisha Meili, and assault charges against eight other peole all throughout New York. After Meili was attacked, she was in the hospital in a coma for more than 12 days, and the news of her attack began to spread like wildfire. The police started their investigation and eventually brought in two hispanic american teens and three african american teens, who would be charged with assault, robbery, riot, rape, sexual abuse and attempted murder. After they were brought it, it appeared that all five had confessed to the crime, despite having no legal counsel to support them during the questioning process. When investigators looked into the DNA samples that they collected, they noticed that none of the suspects matched the DNA found on the scene and that there was no physical evidence that proves that they were there, yet they were all sentenced to jail. While on trial, the news outlets started to refer to them as the ‘Central Park Five’, which included Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise. All of the male teenagers were sentenced to jail for a number of years ranging from 5 - 15 years yet there was some interesting information that would soon be released regarding the case of the Central Park Jogger.

Matias Reyes, who was already in jail serving life, confessed to police officials that he was actually the one who attacked and raped Trisha Meili and had proof that he did so. When investigators examined the DNA, Reyes was a perfect match. The District Attorney for New York County decided that it would be appropriate to vacate the five men (who were teenagers at the time of their arrest) of their convictions, which eventually led to the Central Park Five suing the City of New York. After nearly ten years, the city decided to settle the case for $41 million dollars. After Ava DuVernay created the series for Netflix, the story of the Central Park Five gained a lot of attention and press. They participated in several screenings and interviews and were able to give their side of the story that forever changed their lives.