The Raymond Santana net worth is estimated to be around $5 million… but in 1989 the activist, entrepreneur and designer’s freedom was cut short at the age of 14. He gained notoriety as one of the ‘Exonerated Five’, after being wrongly imprisoned for rape, and serving more than five years before being freed. The 2019 Netflix miniseries, “When They See Us”, tells the true story of his life—read on to learn about the Raymond Santana net worth, his career and his seemingly unhappy love life.
Who is Raymond Santana?
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A controversial Atlanta-based activist, fashion designer, producer, and businessman, Raymond Santana’s net worth of $5 million and is the founder and CEO of his clothing line, Park Madison NYC.
He was arrested along with four other black and Latino youths in 1989. They later became known as the Central Park Five. 28 Year old Trisha Meil had just finished working a full day on Wall Street when she went for her regular evening run through Central Park on April 19, 1989. The attack nearly killed her and she was found four hours later naked, gagged, bound and covered in mud and blood. Raymond Santana was accused of being involved in the crime along with Yusef Salaam, Korey Wise, Antron McCray and Kevin Richardson.
Santana was sentenced to more than 5 years imprisonment, but in 2002 serial rapist Matias Reyes confessed to the attack and the five men were released from jail. Following his release, Santana and his friends filed a lawsuit against New York City and they received $7.1 million each as restitution for their jail time.
But I’m sure you would like to know what Raymond Santana is doing now, and you are obviously super eager to hear what Raymond Santana’s net worth is right? The 47-year-old lives in Duluth, Georgia, a city near Atlanta. A member of the New York City Justice League, Raymond collaborates closely with the Innocence Project and visits New York whenever he can. As mentioned he also owns a clothing business, Park Madison NYC, named after the hood where he grew up.
What is Raymond Santana Net Worth Estimate?
Raymond Santana’s net worth mainly comes from the huge amount of compensation he received for being wrongly accused and spending more than five years in prison. Netflix and other companies pay him a handsome amount for representing his characters in movies and series.
He also earns money from his clothing company. His brand is controversial and focuses a lot on his past history. As far as we can ascertain, the Raymond Santana net worth is hovering somewhere around the five to six million dollars.
Raymond Santana Height, Weight
Ray Santana is a well-built stocky man of Latino decent. When he takes his size 8 kicks off at night, he measures in at 5 feet, 10 inches (1.78m) and the scale shows him at 178 lbs (81 kg). He is dark skinned and has tattoos. He usually sports a goatee and has brown eyes, graying black hair and is relatively bald.
Let’s take a look at we found out about his earlier life before the Raymond Santana net worth received its unfortunate cash injection.
Raymond Santana’s Place of Birth and Early Life
Lorenzo Tartamella, Raymond Santana, and Sarah Burns. Joeyjojo86, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Raymond Santana Sr was a hard working Hispanic New Yorker and the father of Raymond Jr, who would be wrongfully removed from society at the impressionable age of fourteen. Raymond Santana saw light in Atlanta, Georgia on Saturday, September 7. His family is very close knit, so little is known about his mother except that she died from cancer in 1993.
In what turned out to be a very cruel twist of fate, Raymond, now aged 14, went to New York’s Central Park to shoot some hoops and to just generally hang around. He was arrested the next day following the brutal rape and assault on Trisha Meillie the night before. Detectives Humbert Arroyo and Carlos Gonzalez interrogated Santana. They forced and coerced him to confess to the rape of Meili and identify other youths as his co-perpetrators.
He finished school at Bronx Preparatory High School in 2017 and later achieved a business degree.
A few years later, Santana was paroled and returned to his old apartment. His reconnection with his old girlfriend was cut short by financial issues after his release due to his status as a registered sex offender curtailing most good work opportunities.
The young man’s life seemed to be collapsing all around him when Raymond Sr remarried. His new family verbally abused him and his father did nothing to stop any of the chaos unfolding. Raymond started growing desperate and in an attempt to escape the torturous home life, he decided to move into his own place with his then girlfriend, Nekesta Samone Shelton.
Raymond Santana’s net worth was non existent, so he followed the way of so many inner city youths, and started dealing. He made a considerable amount of money from drug dealing before he was incarcerated again after a second arrest. Following Matias Reyes’ admission of guilt in the Central Park case, Raymond was exonerated and allowed to return home. In 2014, Santana won a wrongful imprisonment lawsuit of $7.1 million.
Read on to see what happens to Raymond Santana’s net worth.
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Raymond Santana’s Career
Life in Harlem is not easy for a 13-year-old Hispanic kid with not much going for him. This was also the time that the young Ray discovered that he had a talent for art and drawing… unfortunately this could never be nurtured as the hapless youngster was arrested the following year. When speaking about the Raymond Santana net worth, he recounts that his love for drawing is what inspired him to start his clothing line.
Raymond Santana and Park Madison
111th Street in Harlem is squashed in between Park and Madison Avenues… and this is where a young Raymond Santana spent most of his teens, until he went to jail. This was also the inspiration for the name of his controversial clothing brand.
Raymond Santana’s missed dream of being a fashion designer led him to establish Park Madison NYC. In partnership with Rasheed Young, former President of Run Athletics, Raymond seeks to bring inspirational and aspirational clothing to everyone.
Raymond Santana’s net worth was well on its way when he met Rasheed Young, who was the President of Run Athletics at the time. Rasheed worked with Reverend Run and the massively popular Run D.M.C, a hip-hop group from Queens, NY and the two inspired him to get passionate about life again.
Young heard how much he loved sketching and how it would inspire what he wanted to do. Young helped Santana develop the brand and the design, which incorporated elements and places from Harlem, Santana’s neighborhood. As a result, in 2018, Park Madison NYC became the tribute brand, creating graphic t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, and hoodies.
Raymond Santana and ‘When They See Us’
Santana garnered mass attention following the release of Ava Duvernay’s Netflix series “When They See Us”, which premiered on May 31st, 2019. The series won an Emmy award for Outstanding Casting in a Limited Series this year. The show focuses on the case of Santana and his four accomplices who allegedly raped and beat a woman in Central Park in 1989.
The actor Freddy Miyares portrays Santana as an adult, while a younger star in Marquis Rodriguez, represented him as a teenager. Justin Cunningham and Asante Blackk played Kevin Richardson. The role of Korey Wise is taken by Jharrel Jerome.
At the time of his arrest in the Central Park Jogger case, Yusef Salaam was 15 years old. Chris Chalk plays his character as an adult, and Ethan Herisse as a teen. At the urging of his father, Antron McCray falsely confessed to raping the jogger in Central Park when he was 15 years old. Antron the adult is played by Jovan Adepo, while the teen boy is played by Caleel Harris in “When They See Us”.
The man who ultimately confessed to the attack, convicted murderer and rapist Matias Reyes’, is portrayed by Reece Noi. He is currently serving a life sentence in prison following DNA evidence that proved his guilt and proved the innocence of the Central Park Five.
The convictions were overturned in 2002, and New York City compensated them with a large settlement.
Raymond Santana’s Personal Life and Family
The Santana family have always been a typically close family as you normally find in inner city Hispanic families, and there is little written regarding Raymond Santana’s mother and the rest of the extended family.
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Raymond Santana net worth may drop if he chooses to go through with the divorce from his current wife, Deelishis a.k.a. Chandra Davis a.k.a. London Charles! And it seems that life is not too delicious at the moment as the tasty reality star has indicated on social media that she has had enough of Santana and his apparent infidelity and other misdoings.
Deelishis gained fame after winning the VH1 very successful, hit reality television show “Flavor of Love 2”. Not only does she do TV, she is also a model and has appeared in a number of music videos, including superstars like Lil’ Wayne and Busta Rhymes. In addition, Davis appeared on the canceled third season of, “I Love Money”, but was disqualified after assaulting another cast member during the making of the fourth episode.
Raymond and his VH1 wife tied the know and exchanged their I do’s on June 7th in 2020 after a wild and whirlwind six month engagement. The couple got engaged in December of 2019.
Raymond Santana’s net worth is under pressure if he is to go through with the divorce, as this was also his second marriage. His first union was to his long-time girlfriend, Nekesta Samone Shelton. The couple share a daughter, Melia Symone.
The pair have been active on social media and it seems that things could go either way at the moment and although tensions are running high and Raymond and Deelishis aren’t on the same page at the moment, it’s possible that they can reconcile in the future, or that their split was a blessing in disguise.
It seems that the celebrity couple have always had a bit of a tumultuous affair when it comes to dating, their relationship and marriage.
Do you want to be more surprised about the couple and the Raymond Santana net worth?
Raymond ‘friendzoned’ his wife to be for about two months when he was busy promoting the Netflix show that portrays the harrowing story of his wrongful incarceration, and she started dating someone else! Lucky he didn’t give up and he talked about how they met at a Real Housewives of Atlanta event.
He said that she was so excited to meet someone who was part of the so-called “Exonerated Five” and how different their first physical encounter (it was a platonic hug) felt to her.
The couple have apparently unfollowed each other on various social media channels but people that are close to them have said, “Sometimes even married people do not want to see everything that their other half is posting. It is like taking a short Insta vacation from each other”.
Raymond Santana Net Worth and Bio Summary
The Raymond Santana net worth is calculated to be somewhere in the region between 5 to 7 million dollars at the moment. This is still largely related to the substantial payment that the entrepreneur received from the City of New York after accepting an offer by the former mayor.
In 2016 Raymond received another payout of around half a million dollars. He has admitted that he went a bit wild after getting the money and squandering some of it, but that he stays focused on his brand and activism.
| Name | Raymond Santana |
| Real Name | Raymond Santana |
| Date of Birth | September 7, 1974 |
| Place of Birth | Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
| Origin | Latina |
| Parents | Raymond Santana, Sr |
| Height | 5'10" (1.78 meters) |
| Weight | 178 lbs. (81 kg) |
| Occupation | Activist, fashion designer, producer, and businessman |
| Marital Status | Married to Deelishis |
| Net Worth Estimate | $5Million |