An Oak Lawn man whose life sentence for murder and arson was overturned in 2021 following advocacy by the Innocence Project was sentenced Monday to five years in prison after pleading guilty to traveling to meet a 13-year-old after exchanging explicit texts, according to court records.
Francisco Nanez, 61, was arrested in May 2024 after the Cook County Sheriff’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Unit learned a minor had been receiving inappropriate messages on a social media app from Nanez, the sheriff’s office said. An investigator began posing as the child and continued the conversation by text, according to the sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office did not say if the child was male or female.
Nanez sent sexually explicit messages and requested nude photos from the child, the sheriff’s office alleged. He then allegedly arranged to meet the child outside a Berwyn convenience store, where sheriff’s office investigators arrested him when he arrived. A forensic analysis of Nanez’s cell phone turned up conversations he had with the victim, along with non-explicit photos of the child, according to the sheriff’s office.
On Monday, Nanez pleaded guilty to traveling to meet a minor before Judge Eulalia De La Rosa. Under state law, Nanez must serve 50% of his sentence. With credit for 825 days spent in the county jail, he has about 87 days left to serve.
The case was filed less than two years after Nanez was freed from a life sentence he received for a 1986 arson that killed two people. In July 2022, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office declined to retry Nanez and two co-defendants, all of whom received life sentences following jury trials.
Nanez’s path out of prison began in 2007, when one of his co-defendants saw an episode of “Mythbusters” on a prison television. The show’s hosts tested whether tossing a lit cigarette into a pool of gasoline could start a fire and found it was unlikely, a finding relevant to the arson case that had put the men behind bars. The co-defendant contacted an attorney, and the case began moving through the courts.
In July 2021, prosecutors under then-Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx dismissed charges against Nanez’s two co-defendants and vacated Nanez’s conviction.
In May 2023, Nanez filed a federal lawsuit seeking compensation from the city, as well as the prosecutors and Chicago police officers involved in the 1986 case. Last year, the City Council approved a settlement paying Nanez $8 million. His two co-defendants each received $20 million.
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