MIAMI (AP) — An Alaska man faces a life prison sentence in the January 2017 Florida airport shooting that left five people dead and six wounded.
FILE – In this Jan. 30, 2017, file photo, Esteban Santiago, center, is led from the Broward County jail for an arraignment in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Sentencing is set Friday, Aug. 17, 2018, for Santiago, a 28-year-old Alaska man who pleaded guilty in the January 2017 Florida airport shooting that left five people dead and six wounded. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
Sentencing is set Friday for 28-year-old Esteban Santiago, who pleaded guilty in May to 11 charges in a plea deal in which prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty. Santiago, of Anchorage, Alaska, admitted he opened fire with a handgun in a baggage area at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
The agreement calls for a life prison sentence plus 120 years.
An Iraq war veteran, Santiago is diagnosed as schizophrenic but was found competent to understand legal proceedings.
Santiago initially told the FBI after the shooting he was under government mind control, then switched to unfounded claims he acted in support of the Islamic State extremist group.
By CURT ANDERSON
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