Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Lauderdale airport shooter agrees to guilty plea, life term
After 15 months of speculation and secret reviews, federal prosecutors said Tuesday they will not seek the death penalty for Esteban Santiago, a military veteran who confessed to killing five people and injuring six at Fort Lauderdale’s international airport.
Santiago, whose defense team said he is sorry for what he did, has agreed to plead guilty and spend the rest of his life in federal prison.
Prosecutors have accepted his offer. But the judge wants Santiago to first undergo a mental health evaluation to make sure he knows what he is doing and is legally competent to plead guilty.
If it goes ahead as planned, the plea agreement would avoid a very expensive and potentially long and emotional trial — followed by years of appeals.
Santiago’s documented history of severe mental illness, the fact that he went to the FBI and asked for help two months before committing the mass shooting, his willingness to plead guilty and his military service in the Iraq War were likely among the top factors that affected the prosecution’s decision, experts said.
“Mr. Santiago is remorseful and will plead guilty,” Assistant Federal Public Defender Eric Cohen told the judge.
Santiago, 28, had pleaded not guilty to a 22-count indictment in the Jan. 6, 2017, mass shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Ten of those charges carry a maximum punishment of death or life in federal prison.
Investigators said Santiago bought a one-way ticket from Anchorage to Fort Lauderdale and placed the gun in a box he checked as his only item of luggage.
When the flight landed, he picked up the gun box, loaded the weapon in a restroom near the baggage carousels in Terminal 2 and began firing at other travelers as he emerged from the restroom. After the shootings, he lay down on the floor and surrendered to a Broward sheriff ’s deputy.
Shackled and dressed in beige scrubs, Santiago wore his hair in a short ponytail and spoke only briefly in court Tuesday. His leg visibly trembled under the defense table.
“Yes, your honor,” Santiago said when the judge asked if he had discussed everything with his attorneys, Cohen and Chief Assistant Federal Public Defender Hector Dopico.
His guilty plea is expected in the next several weeks in federal court in Miami, after a mental-health expert examines Santiago and issues a report.
Both sides are due back in court May 23 for a competency hearing with U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom. If the judge is satisfied that Santiago is mentally competent, she would then allow him to plead guilty.
“That is the court’s utmost concern,” Bloom said of Santiago’s competency and ability to understand the rights he is giving up.
Ann Andres, whose husband Terry died in the tragedy, said she welcomed the news that Santiago wants to plead guilty and spend the rest of his life in prison without going to trial.
“My choice has always been life in prison without the possibility of parole,” she said in a phone interview. “I don’t believe in the death penalty and I did not want to have to go through a trial. It saves me a lot of anxiety. This is the best that I could ask for in this situation.”
The Virginia Beach couple flew into Fort Lauderdale that day on their way to a cruise to celebrate Terry’s 63rd birthday.
Ann Andres said her family’s strong religious faith and the prayers and support they have received have helped them to go on while they grieve. Her new granddaughter, born prematurely on March 26, is still undergoing intensive medical treatment. The baby is named Terry Ann, in honor of her grandparents.
Santiago is in the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami and has been prescribed medication to treat schizophrenia.
He was briefly hospitalized for psychiatric care in Alaska in November 2016, two months before the shooting. He had driven to the FBI office in Anchorage, asked for help and told agents he was hearing voices and thought the government was controlling his mind.
After talking with Santiago, FBI agents referred him to Anchorage police officers, who confiscated his handgun — a Walther 9mm — while he was hospitalized for a psychiatric evaluation.
The Anchorage police department returned the gun to Santiago in December 2016, just weeks before he used it in the deadly attack in the airport.
FBI agents said he confessed and told them he was “programmed” to act under government mind control. Later in the interview, he said he was inspired by the Islamic State extremist group, but authorities said no terrorism links have been found.
Federal prosecutors rarely seek a death sentence, and it is even rarer for jurors to endorse their requests.
Only 61 people are on federal death row, according to statistics compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center. Since Congress reinstated the death penalty in 1988, only three prisoners have been executed — in 2001 and 2003.
Born in New Jersey, Santiago grew up in Puerto Rico and most recently lived in Anchorage, Alaska.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, which is still being finalized, Santiago would give up his rights to appeal the criminal conviction and his punishment, prosecutors said.
In the federal system, the process of deciding whether to seek execution or life behind bars takes much longer than in Florida’s state system. The final decision was made by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Family members of the victims were consulted about their wishes during the decision-making process, prosecutors Rick Del Toro and Lawrence LaVecchio told the judge. The defense also made a presentation, detailing Santiago’s illness and his military service. During that process, they also made it clear he wanted to plead guilty, authorities said.
Ralph Woltering, whose 84-year-old wife, Olga, was fatally shot, said he too wants Santiago to spend the rest of his life in prison, without any chance of being released.
“OK, that’s good then,” said Woltering, 91, of Marietta, Ga.
He and his wife were also on their way to a cruise to celebrate his 90th birthday.
Olga Woltering was sitting in a wheelchair at baggage claim when she was shot in the head, according to a civil lawsuit filed by the family against Delta Air Lines, the Broward Sheriff’s Office and other entities.
Edward Amzibel, of Dover, Del., declined to comment Tuesday. His 69-year-old wife Mary Louise was fatally shot, and he was wounded and hospitalized. Calls seeking comment from other victims’ families were not returned.
In those rare cases when federal prosecutors seek the death penalty, a jury must first decide if the defendant is guilty. If they find the person guilty, the same jurors then decide on the appropriate punishment. Their decision is binding on the sentencing judge and the death penalty can only be imposed if they vote 12-0 for it.
Judges and jurors in Florida have sentenced only two men to federal death row. They were prosecuted together in federal court in West Palm Beach.
Drug runners Daniel Troya, 35, and Ricardo Sanchez Jr., 34, were each sentenced to two death sentences and two life terms in 2009 for slaughtering a Greenacres family along Florida’s Turnpike in 2006. They are imprisoned in Terre Haute, Ind., and are appealing their sentences.
The life terms were for fatally shooting the parents and the death sentences were for murdering their sons, ages 3 and 4. Investigators said the murders were ordered to settle a drug debt with the father.
In 2007, a federal jury rejected the death penalty for Kenneth Wilk, a Fort Lauderdale man they convicted of killing Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Todd Fatta in 2004. Wilk shot Fatta, 33, a member of a law enforcement team that was serving a child pornography warrant at Wilk’s home in the Imperial Point neighborhood. Wilk, now 56, is serving a life sentence in Arizona.