North Port man faced up to 15 years in prison for suicide attempt

Click here to view original web page at www.heraldtribune.com

Topics Editor

After the Herald-Tribune published an online story about the Daniel Santiago case, State Attorney Ed Brodsky dropped all charges.

NORTH PORT — Despondent over a pending breakup with the mother of one of his two daughters, Daniel Santiago tried three times to shoot himself in the head with a 9mm pistol last June while huddled in a closet, according to court documents.

The first two times he tried to shoot himself, Santiago flinched at the last second, and the bullets missed his head.

Santiago stuck the pistol in his mouth on the third attempt and pulled the trigger, but the weapon malfunctioned and did not fire, which saved his life.

His roommates, who were downstairs and heard the two shots, called 911 and fled. North Port Police arrived, surrounded the home and called Santiago on his cellphone.

Then, according to court documents, Santiago, 35, did as he was instructed by law enforcement.

He came downstairs unarmed and “willingly came out of the house and was very cooperative, and was glad that they were there to help him, and wanted to thank the NPPD officer who had called him, talked to him, and asked him to come downstairs.”

According to his arrest report, Santiago was both involuntarily committed — a process in Florida known as a Baker Act — and charged with two crimes, a rarity.

Officers arrested him on charges of shooting into a dwelling — a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $15,000 fine — and possession of a firearm while under the influence — a second-degree misdemeanor punishable up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

The threat of a heavy punishment remained until Thursday, when, following the Herald-Tribune’s report on the case, State Attorney Ed Brodsky in a phone call to the newspaper announced he had directed his staff to drop all charges against Santiago.

Brodsky said that his primary concern throughout the case was Santiago’s safety, and that he receive treatment.

Once Brodsky learned from Santiago’s defense attorney, Liane McCurry, that her client was willing to seek treatment on his own, Brodsky said, he decided to drop charges.

Santiago, according to his arrest report, had been clearly under the influence when he attempted to shoot himself. A sample of his breath, which he provided at Sarasota Memorial Hospital as he was being medically cleared for incarceration at the Sarasota County Jail, showed that his blood alcohol content was .263, more than three times over the legal limit to operate a vehicle.

Santiago lived most of his life in Massachusetts and moved to Florida for a better paying job, according to his former girlfriend, Kayla Egan.

“He also wanted to get away from his current girlfriend,” Egan said. “He was looking for a fresh start, to get away, to get his life in order and to come back to Massachusetts a better man, for him and his kids.

“Daniel is a good man who puts his heart into everything he does,” she said.

Egan and Santiago had one daughter, Mya, age 11. Santiago and his most recent girlfriend have one daughter, Mari, who’s 4.

“He loves his children,” Egan said. “They’re all he really talks about. He wants everything to be normal for them — he grew up in foster care — and wants to be closer to them.”

Court documents show Santiago had no prior arrest history, which Egan confirmed.

“He has a couple of traffic tickets,” she said. “That’s it. He’s worked for Toyota as a mechanic for almost 20 years.”

On June 6, 2019, Santiago was socializing and drinking with his roommates when he received a call from his then-girlfriend.

Court documents indicate she told him he should “go ahead and kill himself, because she would never let him see their daughter.”

At 7:10 p.m., Santiago posted a message on Facebook: “My heart is broken, I can’t no more sorry Kayla, Mya Marianna and my most loved friends I’ll meet God tonight. Daddy Jay and mommy Mimi I’m done.”

North Port Police officers recovered a suicide note from the closet after Santiago was arrested, which said “Everything I have I want Bambi (a friend) to have; I will be with God. My heart hurts.”

Santiago walked into the closet and placed a pillowcase on his lap, which had a picture of his two daughters silk screened onto it. He put the suicide note on the pillowcase.

“There is no question that Daniel Santiago’s sole purpose and sole intent when he fired a firearm was to take his life,” the court documents state. “Santiago told NPPD that he felt suicidal and attempted to take his own life. There was no one upstairs at the time that Daniel Santiago attempted to take his own life.”

Michael Barfield, president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said Santiago’s prosecution seemed counter to statements Brodsky has made on the “importance of criminal justice reform and using limited prosecutorial resources wisely.”

“Mr. Santiago needs mental health treatment. Taxpayers don’t need to foot the bill for this misguided prosecution,” Barfield said Wednesday, before Brodsky announced he would drop the charges. “Prosecuting someone who attempts suicide is not smart justice. I urge Mr. Brodsky to abandon this case.”

Another expert was surprised by the decision to file criminal charges against someone who had just attempted suicide.

“This is the first time I’ve ever heard of this,” Melissa Larkin-Skinner, the regional CEO of Centerstone, which provides behavioral health care, also said Wednesday. She oversees all inpatient and outpatient services and programs and is a licensed mental health counselor with 25 years of experience.

Having a client who was both Baker Acted and charged criminally, she said, is extremely rare.

“It happens maybe 1% of the time, anecdotally,” she said Wednesday. “We actually have really good law enforcement in Manatee and Sarasota counties. They are very attuned to mental health issues. They’re really good about it. That makes me even more surprised. I’m not sure what’s different about this particular case that made them go down this path.”

In a motion filed Thursday, Assistant State Attorney William S. Greiner, the prosecutor assigned to the the case, dropped all charges against Santiago. Greiner declined to be interviewed.

Brodsky said the case could serve as a “good training topic for law enforcement, to discuss best practices.”

“There can be debate about whether it’s appropriate for the courts — should the courts get involved. We can debate these type of incidents,” he said. “It causes good careful analysis and makes for discussion among criminal justice professionals.

“I’ve had discussions with my people, had contact with NPPD, reached out the the Sheriff’s Office’s training academy and reviewed literature from around the country on law enforcement’s response to these mental health issues. I do believe it is a continually evolving area of police concern.”

Santiago, Brodsky said, could be released from the county jail either Thursday or Friday, as soon as he was out-processed by jail staff.

The handling of Santiago’s case stood out even more when compared with another defendant who was also charged with firing into a dwelling and other, more serious felonies, but never saw the inside of a jail cell.

Ryan Flanzer was given a no-jail plea deal even though he was charged with seven felonies.

Flanzer’s other charges included attempted armed burglary, wearing a bulletproof vest during the commission of a crime, impersonating law enforcement, drug trafficking and three counts of drug possession.

Attempted armed burglary and impersonating a law enforcement officer — Flanzer’s most serious charges — were dropped, while he was found guilty of three counts of drug possession and firing into a dwelling. However, Judge Charles Williams withheld adjudication on the remaining counts.

Flanzer was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days in Sarasota County jail, because Williams gave him credit for time served at a Malibu rehab facility by the ocean — something local criminal attorneys said does not qualify as “jail-like” conditions.

Police say that around 12:10 p.m. on May 5, 2018, Flanzer arrived at a residential condominium at 1350 Main St. in downtown Sarasota wearing a tactical vest and a badge. He identified himself as a process server and was allowed entry to the third floor. Once inside, Flanzer went to the front door of a condo, whose owners he believed scammed him out of $300,000, and shot four rounds from a handgun into the door lock, trying to gain entry.

Asked why they agreed to the no-jail plea, prosecutors said Flanzer was the model of “mitigation” during his rehab in Malibu and pointed to the good grades he received there from UCLA extension classes — four As and a B — and to psychological reports that said he was no threat.

Hello reader, our article commenting that you would normally see here is temporarily shut down. We still want to hear from you, so we invite you to go to our Facebook page or submit a letter to the editor.