Donald Michael Santini biography: 13 things about US Army veteran born in Texas

Donald Michael Santini is an American criminal born in Texas, United States. Before his arrest, he lived in Campo, San Diego County, California, USA under the name of Wellman Simmonds.

In Campo, Santini served as president of a water board in Campo and regularly appeared at public board meetings. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. He was 7 years younger than Cynthia “Cindy” Ruth Wood and 8 years younger than Pamela Lynn Kincaid. Kincaid’s children attended Cape Vista Child Care Center in Bradenton, Manatee County, Florida, USA where Wood worked as a manager.
2. In 1978, he was convicted of rape while serving in the U.S. Army in Frankfurt, Germany.
3. In 1983, he robbed a convenience store in Texas and was charged with aggravated robbery. Days after confessing, he disappeared. Using Charles Michael Stevens as an alias, he resurfaced, worked as a janitor in Longboat Key, Florida, befriended Kincaid and moved in with her. He called Wood while she was in a custody battle for her children against her husband Barry Wood and promised to provide information about Barry that could help her win custody of her children.
4. On June 5, 1984, he picked up Kincaid’s children at Cape Vista Child Care Center and met Cindy there. In the evening, Cindy was seen leaving her apartment in Bradenton with him.
5. On June 6, 1984, Cindy went missing. That day, he told Kincaid he killed Cindy, according to Kincaid. He allegedly strangled Cindy to death and left her body in a watery ditch in Riverview, Hillsborough County, Florida. 
6. On June 9, 1984, Cindy was found dead with strangulation injuries in a watery ditch in Riverview. A medical examiner determined she had been strangled and his fingerprints were found on her body. 
7. According to a witness statement from June 15, 1984, he told a woman he knew about the killing of Cindy. 
8. On June 18, 1984, he was charged with first-degree murder. He disappeared before he could be arrested. While on the run, he used at least 13 different aliases including Donald Chapman and John Trimbleon.
9. On June 7, 2023, the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force arrested him as a fugitive in Campo. He was booked into the San Diego Central Jail in San Diego, San Diego County.
10. On June 9, 2023, he attended an extradition hearing in a court in San Diego County where he waived his right to contest his extradition to Hillsborough County and signed the forms that allowed him to go back to Tampa, Florida.
11. At around 3:30 a.m. on June 28, 2023, he arrived at the Orient Road Jail in Tampa.
12. On November 16, 2023, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder to avoid a first-degree murder charge. 
13. He was 65 years old when he pleaded guilty on November 16, 2023 to murdering Cindy. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison.