YORK, Pa. — A York man who spent two decades in prison -- including some time on death row -- following his conviction on charges that he helped his brother kill two people in 1998 was freed from prison this week after reaching an agreement with the York County District Attorney's Office.
Noel Montalvo, 59, was convicted in 2003 of helping his brother, Milton, kill Miriam Ascencio and her boyfriend Nelson Lugo (also known as Manuel Santana) in 1998 in Ascencio's York City apartment.
Milton Montalvo was also convicted of the murders, and both men were sentenced to death, though those sentences were later overturned, according to reporting in the York Dispatch.
Noel Montalvo was granted a new trial after winning an appeal to strike down his original conviction. But just before that second trial was set to begin, Montalvo's counsel reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to a single count of tampering with evidence.
Prosecutors in turn dropped the homicide, first-degree murder, criminal conspiracy and burglary charges against him.
York County Judge Harry Ness sentenced Montalvo to one year of probation and ordered his release from prison.
York County District Attorney Dave Sunday said his office, along with York City Police, investigated the case ahead of Montalvo's second trial and determined the original witness testimony linking Noel Montalvo to the murders "continued to diminish over time and now lacked sufficient reliability to sustain a murder conviction."
There was also no physical or forensic evidence linking Noel Montalvo to the murders, Sunday said in a statement. Investigators had several pieces of physical evidence collected from the crime scene tested for DNA, and found no forensic evidence linking Noel Montalvo to the murders.
“A plea to tampering was the only fair, just, and ethical result for this case,” Sunday said in his statement.
The charges of evidence tampering stemmed from Noel Montalvo's decision to accompany his brother to Florida after the April 19, 1998 murders of Ascencio and Lugo in an East Philadelphia Street apartment, Sunday said.
DNA testing of the physical evidence did find further DNA matches belonging to Milton Montalvo, Sunday said.
"We would note that the further forensic testing greatly strengthened the basis for Milton Montalvo’s murder convictions," Sunday added.
According to court records, Milton Montalvo and Ascencio were in a common-law marriage when they moved to York from Puerto Rico, but split in 1998. Ascensio then became involved with Lugo, a.k.a. Santana, in April of that year.
The bodies of Ascencio and Lugo were found in her apartment on April 19, 1998. Autopsies found Lugo died of injuries sustained in a stabbing, while Ascencio died of blunt- and sharp-force trauma to her head and neck.
Milton Montalvo was arrested in Florida, where he had fled with his brother, and returned to York for trial. He was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to death.
Noel Montalvo was charged as an accomplice and arrested in New Jersey in 2002. He was convicted of homicide in 2003 and also sentenced to death.
Both brothers appealed their death sentences. Milton Montalvo's sentence was overturned in 2017, while Noel Montalvo's was overturned in 2019.
Noel Montalvo continued a lengthy post-conviction appeals process that eventually led to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordering a new trial in 2021.
"I want to continue to offer my deepest condolences and support to the families and friends of Miriam Ascencio and Manuel Santana," Sunday said. "After suffering such a devastating loss of loved ones at the hands of Milton Montalvo’s utter depraved cruelty, they went through years of having each turn of the criminal justice system force them to relive this deeply traumatic and horrific loss."
Milton Montavo died in prison in 2021 while his re-sentencing process was underway. He had reportedly taken full responsibility for the murders during that process, clearing his brother of any involvement beyond accompanying him to Florida after the crimes had been committed.
