For the second time this year, New Mexico authorities have arrested a fugitive wanted for questioning by detectives investigating the death of a Duluth man.
Robert Sandman was arrested Monday by Albuquerque narcotics detectives executing a search warrant at a home where he was staying. Sandman is wanted back in Georgia for allegedly stealing a red Porsche 944 belonging Donald Singer, whose body was found in late March in the garage of his Gwinnett County home.
Sandman was initially arrested April 7 for public drunkenness outside a Pueblo Indian gaming casino in Sandoval County, New Mexico. Police located the 1988 Porsche in the casino’s parking lot.
Sandoval County police mistakenly released him after receiving no word from Georgia regarding his transfer.
According to Duluth Police Capt. Mark Hunter, “Gwinnett never received any notice that he was ready for transfer and neither did we.”
Sandman didn’t go far. He was arrested Monday just one county over from where he had been detained.
His latest arrest ends a nearly seven-month odyssey that frustrated police and angered the victim’s family.
“People should be outraged that this could ever happen,” Singer’s niece, Christina Torres Cappello, told the AJC in July.
The investigation into Singer’s death has been at a standstill ever since, Hunter said. Sandman, 52, has been charged only with theft though additional charges may follow, Hunter said.
“We know he was (at Singer’s house),” Hunter said. “There are additional people associated with elements of the case that may face charges.”
Singer, 57, was last seen alive March 23 — one day after Sandman had been freed from state prison in Jackson after serving a brief sentence for theft and aggravated stalking. Sandman also served nine years for second-degree murder in New Mexico during the 1990s.
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