A fugitive who was on the run for 40 years after he allegedly murdered a Florida lady managed to remain forward of the legislation by crafting a ‘loving, respectful life.’
Donald Santini, 65, was arrested last week in Southern California for strangling to dying Cynthia ‘Cindy’ Ruth Wooden, 33, in Bradenton, Florida in 1984.
He appeared on America’s Most Needed thrice – in 1990, 2005 and 2013 – and remained on the checklist till cops obtained a tip-off in June when he utilized for a passport.
He was remanded in custody with out bail and referred to as the ‘definition of a flight threat’ by a decide in Tampa on Thursday.
After his arrest, Santini wrote a letter to an area information station the place he stated: ‘The rationale I’ve been in a position to run so lengthy is to reside a loving respectful life.
‘Issues aren’t as they appear. I want a lawyer that does not attempt to push me by the system to maintain me quiet. The issue is I’ve no cash.’
Pillar of the neighborhood… and a fugitive on America’s Most Needed checklist: Santini and his spouse pictured collectively in 2013
Santini was the final individual seen with Wooden, 33, earlier than her physique was found strangled and left in a canal. The arrest warrant stated a medical expert decided she had been strangled and Santini’s fingerprints had been discovered on her physique
Within the the practically 4 many years earlier than his arrest, Santini lived simply outdoors of San Diego within the small city of Campo – which has a inhabitants of three,000 – underneath the title Wellman Simmonds.
Information present that he married a girl in Nevada in March 1990, and the couple had a daughter shortly afterward.
Within the wake of Santini’s arrest, his daughter has made a number of posts on-line protesting his innocence.
In a single, she stated: ‘My dad did not do it.’
In one other she posted alongside a video of him being perp walked right into a police station, and wrote: ‘I miss you papa. Keep sturdy.’
Santini – who instructed native residents he was 80 years outdated regardless of solely being 65 – lived in a rural dwelling the place he’d put in surveillance cameras and barbed wire whereas serving because the president of the Lake Morena Views Mutual Water Firm, in accordance with an area information report.
He typically appeared at public conferences and was thought of a ‘pillar of the neighborhood’ by neighbors who stated they had been surprised by the information.
A colleague who witnessed his arrest stated that Santini was ‘very concerned together with his granddaughter in gymkhana (an equestrian sport).’ She added that the kid lives with him and his spouse, and is enrolled in an area college.
In Santini’s letter protesting his innocence whereas in jail awaiting extradition in San Diego, he claimed he was energetic within the native Rotary Membership and owned a Thai restaurant.
Santini went on to write down within the letter to ABC San Diego that he was abused as a toddler and that he would kill animals in his youth.
He apologized for his previous errors however made no reference to Wooden’s homicide.
Officers say Wooden’s homicide wasn’t Santini’s first foray into violent crime.
Cynthia Wooden met Santini because the suspect’s girlfriend’s kids had been attending the day care the place the sufferer labored
Santini was caught in San Diego in early June, after evading arrest for 39 years
Santini pictured throughout his first court docket look in San Diego in June
Santini’s daughter, who goes by Whitney, has maintained her father’s innocence in a sequence of social media posts
In 2018, Santini was interviewed by ABC San Diego after the deaths of two individuals who lived in an residence constructing that he managed
Santini has appeared a number of instances on America’s Most Needed
In 1978, he was convicted on rape costs whereas serving within the US Military in Frankfurt, Germany. The suspect’s delivery announcement exhibits that he was born right into a army household on Dyess Air Pressure Base in Abilene, Texas.
After his discharge from the service, Santini was arrested on aggravated theft costs in his dwelling state, he was accused of holding up a comfort retailer with a knife. Following a confession, he fled for the Sunshine State whereas out on bail.
He left behind one other spouse and and daughter in Texas, his estranged spouse Marla Santini instructed WFLA this week.
Marla, who has since stored the final title Santini, instructed the station that one in all her daughters noticed the suspect on the information and acknowledged.
‘I hadn’t seen him in 40 years. I have not heard nothing. I’ve not talked to anyone. All people, his household, nobody’s heard something from him,’ she instructed the station, including that she thought he was lifeless.
After confirming his id, Marla stated that she arrange a video name together with her estranged husband. The pair are nonetheless legally married.
‘He acquired on the primary video. He says, ‘I am sorry, however I do not suppose I do know you. Do I?’ I went, ‘Actually? Actually? I’ve your daughter.”
Marla described her interactions with Santini as ‘nice.’
‘He do not act like he is the identical individual,’ she stated.
Marla stated that he instructed her he left her and his little one due to ‘demons’ and that it was nothing private.
As soon as in Florida, Santini started working as a janitor in a lodge underneath the title Charles Michael Stevens. Throughout this time, he began a relationship with a girl named Pamela Kincaid, and finally moved in together with her and her two kids.
Wooden was the supervisor of a daycare heart which Kincaid’s kids attended, and police allege that Santini had tried thus far her.
The world the place Cynthia Wooden’s physique was present in 1984
Cynthia Wooden’s stepdaughter, Denise Kozer, was 20 years outdated when the homicide occurred, she says her whole household have suffered the after results of the terrible crime
He is accused of killing her on June 6, 1984 after arranging to fulfill up together with her with the promise of giving her info that would have helped her win a bitter custody battle over her three kids.
Her physique was discovered absolutely clothed in a watery grave in Riverview, simply outdoors of Bradenton, about two days later. However the hunt for her killer went chilly for 39 years.
On the time of her dying, Wooden was embroiled in a custody battle together with her estranged husband, Barry Wooden, whom she accused of being bodily abusive throughout their marriage. These costs had been expunged after she was murdered.
Within the intervening years each Barry Wooden and the sufferer’s son have died.
‘She was form of a hippy lady. She would have went to the ends of the Earth for all of us. Though I wasn’t hers by blood, however simply rising up with and round her, we had been a household,’ Wooden’s stepdaughter Denise Kozer instructed ABC Tampa final month.
Kozer stated she was 20 years outdated when her stepmother was murdered, and her siblings had been three, 5 and 12. All have suffered numerous psychological well being and homelessness points all through their lives.
‘My siblings actually did not get the complete life together with her, which angers me,’ she added.
‘In the event that they want further proof, we’re prepared to allow them to exhume the physique – no matter it takes to guarantee that he does not go anyplace. I requested them to not let him out on bond. That was our one request we had,’ Kozer stated in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times following Santini’s court docket look on July sixth.
‘He has a spouse and kids in California, and I really feel sorry for them as a result of they most likely did not know, both. However they’re all nonetheless alive. Our lives had been devastated, modified eternally,’ Kozer additionally stated.
The Bradenton Herald described the suspect in Wooden’s dying as a ‘tall, slender, blond man’ who sported a blond moustache. The Herald’s report mentions that the final witness to see Wooden was her 14-year-old son, Thomas, who instructed police that he noticed her getting within the suspect’s brown Ford.
The newspaper’s report goes on to say that the Texas Rangers had been concerned within the seek for Santini as authorities believed the suspect headed for Kentucky earlier than going to the Lone Star State.
After Wooden was killed, Santini absconded, this time headed for California. At this stage, authorities estimate that Santini was utilizing 13 completely different aliases, experiences the Tampa Bay Times.
A Fb publish made by Santini’s daughter shortly after his arrest
The Herald article lists Santini’s different identified aliases as Donald Chapman and John Trimble.
Santini was interviewed by KGTV in 2018 in relation to the deaths of the mother and father of seven kids in San Diego. He is named as ‘Wellman Simmons’ within the story and known as the supervisor of the household’s residence constructing.
‘It actually was one of the vital stunning issues I’ve ever heard in my life,’ neighbor Rick Fox stated of Santini’s arrest in an interview with ABC San Diego. Fox stated that Santini was identified to many as Wells.
‘Anyone who want to see an outdated case solved can be completely satisfied, and I would be completely satisfied for the household of this woman who was strangled and killed, however it’s completely stunning,’ he added.
One other colleague, Karen Russell, instructed East County Magazine that she was there when US Marshals however the cuffs on the suspect.
‘I used to be there when he acquired arrested. He has a spouse and granddaughter. He was very concerned together with his granddaughter in gymkhana. His granddaughter lives with them and goes to highschool out right here,’ Russell instructed the web site.
‘It makes me very indignant, as a result of the neighborhood did not deserve this. Too unhealthy he landed right here It is a distraction for the water firm,’ she added.
She additionally stated that Santini would inform those who he was 80 years outdated regardless that he was solely in his 60s.
Shortly after Wooden’s homicide, a girl named Heidi Pareigis instructed NBC Tampa Bay that she and her husband husband rented out a room to Santini. At one level, she stated that she heard him overtly talk about the homicide.
‘He identified the place he had performed it, precisely how he had performed it and such. He was simply glowing about it, you recognize? When he talked about violence and crime, he acquired an precise completely satisfied feeling out of it.’
Santini was arrested after he tried to use for a passport in early June. The tip that led to his arrest got here from the Florida/Caribbean Regional Fugitive Job Pressure.
He was held at San Diego Central Jail till being extradited again to Florida. ‘This arrest permits us to reexamine proof collected in 1984 utilizing the know-how of immediately, because the case is now thought of open as soon as once more,’ a spokesperson for Hillsborough Sheriff’s Workplace instructed the Instances.
Heidi Pareigis, proven right here, rented a room to Santini across the time of the Cynthia Wooden homicide
Pareigis stated that she heard Santini overtly discuss concerning the homicide. ‘When he talked about violence and crime, he acquired an precise completely satisfied feeling out of it,’ she stated
Santini alluded to the actual fact Wooden’s homicide being a contract killing throughout an interview with prosecutors
Investigators on the scene of Wooden’s homicide in 1984
Whereas in jail awaiting extradition in San Diego, Santini despatched a letter to ABC San Diego during which he apologized for his previous errors however made no reference to Wooden’s homicide
Paperwork acknowledged that Santini shouldn’t be eligible for parole due to his ‘previous and current patterns of conduct.’ His skill to evade police is cited within the grievance.
‘I am pleading with the district legal professional and the sheriff’s workplace; please don’t give him any bond; he does not deserve something. My stepmother did not deserve what occurred to her both,’ Kozer instructed the ABC affiliate.
‘You’ll pay for what you have performed to our lives and so many lives. And I hope you get the dying sentence,’ she additionally stated.
‘[Santini has] dedicated two violent harmful crimes, and has demonstrated the talent and wherewithal to deviously and adeptly evade justice by hiding his true id and dwelling underneath a number of pretend names and identities for over 39 years,’ prosecutors say in paperwork.
He was represented by a public defender named Daniel Miller in San Diego and is now represented by Hillsborough County public defender Jamie Kane.
‘We do not know something concerning the underlying details which are alleged, he may haven’t dedicated this,’ Miller instructed ABC San Diego. In his first look in court docket, Santini admitted that he was the person police had been searching for.
He didn’t battle the extradition order however did say that he didn’t ‘really feel protected’ going again to Florida. Santini made his fist look in court docket in Florida on his sixty fifth birthday which was additionally the anniversary of Wooden’s homicide.
In court docket, Kane stated that there is no proof that the suspect left Texas with an impressive warrant.
‘The place is the failure to seem warrant? The place is the circuit court docket case quantity? The place is the proof that he was on pretrial launch? Aside from a easy assertion of Mr. Santini, who just isn’t a authorized professional,’ Kane stated.
