Killer of 5 people at airport gets life

MIAMI — A 28-year-old Alaska man will spend the rest of his life in prison for the January 2017 Florida airport shooting that left five people dead and six wounded, a federal judge ordered Friday.

U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom accepted a plea deal in which Esteban Santiago agreed to admit to the shooting if prosecutors would not seek the death penalty. Santiago pleaded guilty in May to 11 charges of causing death and violence at an international airport. He was sentenced to five consecutive life prison sentences for the five deaths and an additional 120 years for the six people he wounded.

Santiago, of Anchorage, admitted he opened fire with a handgun in a baggage area at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after traveling there on a one-way ticket. He retrieved a box containing a Walther 9mm handgun from checked luggage, loaded it in a restroom and came out firing 15 shots.

Bloom called the rampage “85 seconds of evil” and said she found it difficult to “separate the evil of the acts from the evil in the man.”

An Iraq War veteran, Santiago was diagnosed after the shooting as schizophrenic but was found competent to understand legal proceedings.

Prosecutor Rick Del Toro said the family members supported the decision not to seek the death penalty for Santiago, with many preferring that Santiago sit in prison for decades rather than face execution.