FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida--The 26-year-old Iraq war veteran accused of killing five people at a busy Florida airport in the latest U.S. gun rampage appeared in a federal court on Monday on charges that could bring him the death penalty.
Esteban Santiago, who had a history of erratic behaviour, was escorted into the courtroom near Fort Lauderdale for the brief hearing surrounded by U.S. marshals and wearing a red jail jumpsuit and shackles. He has admitted to investigators that he planned Friday's attack at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and bought a one-way ticket from his home in Alaska to carry it out, according to a criminal complaint.
Authorities say they have not ruled out terrorism as a motive and that they are investigating whether mental illness played a role. In November, Santiago went to a Federal Bureau of Investigation office in Anchorage and told agents he believed U.S. spies were controlling his mind.
Santiago spoke little during the hearing, confirming to U.S. Magistrate Judge Alicia Valle that he understood the charges, and that he is a U.S. citizen. He said he did not have his own lawyer, and he was assigned a federal public defender.
Asked about his employment, Santiago said that for the last couple of years he had worked in Anchorage for a company called Signal 88 Security, earning about $2,000 per month. He told the court he had only $5 to $10 in his bank account.
Prosecutors called for Santiago, who is being held at the Broward County Jail in Fort Lauderdale, to be denied bail, and Valle scheduled a Jan. 17 hearing to discuss the request. Legal experts have said it is very unlikely he would be released.
"They've then got two weeks to indict him, and then they've got to go through the whole death penalty review," said former federal prosecutor David Weinstein, a partner with Miami law firm Clarke Silverglate.
