TAMPA – A judge in Florida has ordered a 65-year-aged California fugitive held without having bond in relationship with the death of a lady practically 40 years in the past.
Donald Santini was arrested by U.S. marshals in California previous thirty day period, and extradited to Florida. He had used at minimum 13 aliases above the many years.
Santini was the very last individual found with 33-calendar year-aged Cynthia “Cindy” Ruth Wood. The arrest warrant said a medical examiner determined she had been strangled, and Santini’s fingerprints were being uncovered on her physique.
“You remaining on the operate for nearly 40 years is a consciousness of guilt. You knew you were operating from something,” Decide Catherine Catlin advised Santini during a hearing in Tampa on Thursday.
Photos taken in the courtroom showed Santini weeping prior to the judge denied bond.
Wood’s stepdaughter, Denise Kozer informed the Tampa Bay Times she’s hoping to locate closure in a case that resulted in “whole devastation” for her spouse and children.
Again in 1984, Santini was acknowledged as Charles Michael Stevens, which was an alias he utilized to flee a warrant in Texas. At the time of his arrest, he was residing less than the identify Wellman Simmonds in Campo, California, which is in southeastern San Diego County. He served on the local drinking water board.
“He has a wife and little ones in California, and I come to feel sorry for them due to the fact they in all probability failed to know, both,” Kozer stated. “But they are all still alive. Our lives had been devastated, altered without end.”
Kozar told the Occasions that each Barry Wooden and the more mature son of Cindy Wooden had died given that the slaying, and her youthful 50 %-siblings have suffered from psychological well being challenges since their parents’ deaths.
She advised the newspaper she’s used years recognizing that the gentleman who destroyed her household has been free of charge. The situation has been highlighted on “America’s Most Required” a number of times.
Wood achieved with Santini, who had identified as her with claims of providing information about her spouse, Barry Wooden, that could maybe assist her get custody of their two small children, who were being 3 and 5, in accordance to past reports by the Bradenton Herald. Wood also experienced a son from a prior marriage. Kozar was Barry Wood’s daughter from yet another marriage.
Kozar, who was 20 when Wood was killed, claimed she hopes Santini would not get one more likelihood to escape.
“If they need additional evidence, we’re willing to allow them exhume the overall body – no matter what it requires to make positive that he isn’t going to go everywhere,” Kozer reported.
Santini’s attorney asked the decide for bail. But prosecutors famous that Santini killed Wood immediately after fleeing a charge in Texas related to a comfort keep theft.
The choose didn’t have to have extra proof.
“You are the definition of flight danger,” the choose explained to Santini through the hearing. “There is nothing at all I can do to preserve the safety of this local community if I was to enable you go.”
