Red devil staring at death
FORT LAUDERDALE — Wearing a scarlet jumpsuit and handcuffs, Fort Lauderdale airport shooting suspect Esteban Santiago was hauled into federal court Monday and told he could face the death penalty.
The 26-year-old Iraq war veteran also was ordered held pending a bond hearing for Friday’s attack, in which he is accused of killing five and wounding six at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Santiago (right, in court) will be given a public defender, as US Magistrate Judge Alicia Valle declared him indigent after learning he has only $5 or $10 in the bank.
Santiago has been charged with performing an act of violence in an airport serving international civil aviation, for which Valle said he could get the death penalty. He also was charged with using his service gun during a crime of violence.
“We are telling you the maximum penalty allowed by law so that you understand the seriousness of the charges,” Valle said.
State authorities could also file first-degree murder charge, but that’s unnecessary for now, said former federal prosecutor David Weinstein, who is not associated with the case.
The New Jersey native, who was raised in Puerto Rico and moved to Alaska in 2014, gave “yes” and “no” answers to a series of questions about his per- sonal finances during the 20minute hearing.
He said he had been in the Army, where he made about $15,000 a year. He also said he had worked for a security company in Anchorage until November, making $2,100 a month, but was now nearly broke.
Valle ordered Santiago to appear next for an arraignment on Jan. 23.
Santiago’s Alaska neighbors said he seemed to have snapped in October, about a month after his daughter was born.
Brittany Adams told local station KREM-TV that two weeks ago, another neighbor called police because Santiago “was having a loud party and then kicked in his door.”
When Adams said she and her mother tried to reason with Santiago about the parties — and asked him not to park in her mother’s handicapped spot — he responded “rather darkly.”
Santiago went to the FBI in Alaska two months ago and said he was hearing voices urging him to join an Islamic terrorist group, but agents found no evidence linking him to terrorism.
They confiscated his 9mm handgun — but gave it back to him after a couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, ABC News reported that counterterrorism officials have found out that Santiago had booked a one-way flight to New York on New Year’s Eve, but canceled at the last minute and instead got tickets to Florida.