Prosecutors Withdraw Death Penalty, Agree to Guilty Pleas in Two High Profile Cases With Multiple Victims

State and fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors have agreed to with­draw the death penal­ty in exchange for guilty pleas by defen­dants charged with mul­ti­ple killings in two unre­lat­ed high-pro­file mur­der cas­es. On May 4, Lake County, Indiana pros­e­cu­tors dropped the death penal­ty against Darren Vann (pic­tured, left), who had killed sev­en women. On May 1, fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors announced they would not pur­sue the death penal­ty against Esteban Santiago (pic­tured right), who killed five peo­ple and wound­ed six oth­ers in a shoot­ing ram­page at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida in 2017. Military records reflect that Vann — a for­mer Hawk Missile sys­tem oper­a­tor who had earned a National Defense Service Medal — was pre­ma­ture­ly dis­charged from the Marine Corps in 1993 for con­duct described as ​“incon­gru­ent with Marine Corps’ expec­ta­tions and stan­dards.” Vann had been cap­i­tal­ly charged in the stran­gu­la­tion deaths of two women after hav­ing been released from prison in Texas in 2013 where he had served time for a rape con­vic­tion. County pros­e­cu­tors agreed to with­draw the death penal­ty in exchange for his admis­sion of guilt in their mur­ders and the mur­ders of five oth­er women in an area of Gary, Indiana, fre­quent­ed by sex work­ers and drug users. He was arrest­ed in October 2014 after police found one vic­tim’s body in a motel bath­tub. Vann told police he had killed six oth­er women and lat­er led author­i­ties to their remains. Marvin Clinton, the long­time boyfriend of one of the vic­tims and father of her child, called the death penal­ty ​“the easy way out” and said he pre­ferred than Vann be sen­tenced to life with­out parole. ​“I want him to suf­fer,” Clinton said. ​“These women will haunt him for the rest of his life.” Federal pros­e­cu­tors reached a plea agree­ment that would avoid a pro­tract­ed death-penal­ty tri­al for Santiago, a severe­ly men­tal­ly ill Iraqi War vet­er­an who suf­fers from audi­to­ry hal­lu­ci­na­tions and is being med­icat­ed for schiz­o­phre­nia. Santiago opened fire in the Fort Lauderdale air­port two months after hav­ing been released from a psy­chi­atric hos­pi­tal­iza­tion in Alaska. At that time, Santiago told local FBI agents in Anchorage that he was hear­ing voic­es and thought the gov­ern­ment was con­trol­ling his mind. Local police then con­fis­cat­ed his hand­gun, but returned it to him weeks before the air­port shoot­ing. Santiago’s lawyer, Assistant Federal Public Defender Eric Cohen, said Santiago has expressed remorse for the shoot­ing. U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom has ordered Santiago to under­go a men­tal health eval­u­a­tion to ensure he is legal­ly com­pe­tent to plead guilty and has sched­uled a com­pe­ten­cy hear­ing for May 23.

(Paula McMahon, ​“Fort Lauderdale air­port shoot­er to plead guilty, spend life in prison,” Orlando Sun Sentinel, May 1, 2018; Carl Prine, Accused air­port shoot­er was trou­bled vet­er­an who slipped through cracks of Alaska gun cul­ture, Orlando Sun Sentinel, January 22, 2017; Man Who Admitted to Killing 7 Impoverished Women Called His Victims ​‘Mistakes’, Associated Press, May 4, 2018; Ciara O’Rourke, Marine Corps: Darren Vann didn’t meet expec­ta­tions and stan­dards, Austin American-Statesman, October 22, 2014.) See Arbitrariness and Mental Illness.