Exonerated after 42 years in prison, two cousins look forward to fresh start in 2024

Two weeks ago, Jimmy Soto and David Ayala were wearing blue prison-issued jumpsuits.

On Tuesday, they were both in new suits, ready to tackle the new year and their new lives after serving 42 years in prison for a 1981 double slaying in the Little Village neighborhood. They were exonerated this month in what is the longest-served wrongful conviction sentence in state history, according to the University of Michigan’s National Registry of Exonerations.

“To me, it’s like shedding the last vestiges of prison,” Ayala said.

Ayala, 60, and Soto, 62, got makeovers Tuesday at the Project Gentlemen Image & Grooming Studio at 540 W. 35th St. in Bridgeport, which provides grooming and clothing services for graduating high school seniors and adult men ready to reenter the workforce. Both went home with new suits, free of charge.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

“The world has completely changed after being away for 42 years,” said Jermaine Anderson, founder and executive director of Project Gentlemen, which opened its storefront in November. “We wanted to make sure that they had something up to date to make sure they had current tools and resources to become relevant, productive members returning to the world.”

Project Gentlemen is funded by donations, Anderson said, and all the items in the store are free.

“Transitioning back, being able to have a nice suit on, that I’m going to wear for the New Year’s, it just makes me feel more human, because so much of our lives have been destroyed due to our incarceration,” Soto said.

The cousins spent Christmas with family, and Soto said his time out of prison has been a “whirlwind.” The two met relatives who had been born while they were in prison. They reminisced about relatives who died while they were away, Ayala said.

“It’s like you’re with family, but then again, you’re like a stranger,” Soto said.

Soto, donning a blue suit, said he felt 2024 would be a fresh start.

Soto, who earned a bachelor’s degree last month from Northwestern University’s Prison Education Program, is planning on retaking the law school exam to get a better score. He’s hoping to apply to law school and begin attending in spring 2024.

“I’m determined to do it to help another Jimmy Soto, another David Ayala. There’s so many of them in the system, if I could help a few of them, then I think I’ve given back,” he said.

Ayala is spending time with friends and family before looking for work, he said.

For New Year’s, the two plan to celebrate with other exonerees, Soto said. Exonerees can understand their experience in a way that others can’t, Ayala said.

And that’s some much needed support for the two, who entered the prison system when smartphones didn’t yet exist.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

The world has changed in the past 42 years, and Soto and Ayala are still taking their time getting acclimated.

Ayala said he loved Netflix and was delighted to learn he could speak into the remote to search for shows.

Soto said he was shocked to learn that people could use their phone to pay at the grocery store and that there was a way (Bluetooth) to connect smartphones to cars wirelessly.

“It’s like you’re transported to the future, like one of these sci-fi movies,” Soto said. “It’s like [the 1993 movie “Demolition Man”] with Wesley Snipes and Sylvester Stallone; he’s in a cryogenic stage and decades have passed and suddenly, bam, it just seems like you’re in another world.”

For Ayala, it’s not just the world and new technology he must reckon with, but also the fact of his wrongful conviction.

When Ayala went to Walmart recently with his brother, they paid at self-checkout before walking out of the store. Then, the alarms went off. A Walmart employee checked their receipt and the items in their bag, which matched up, before letting them go.

For someone who’s never served time, this might be a forgettable occurrence, but for Ayala it was a reminder.

“The feeling of accusation after this was ... it was a lot to take in. It’s so easy to get blamed for something you didn’t do,” he said.

Editor’s note: This article was corrected to report the double slaying happened in the Little Village neighborhood.