Fugitive Man
Fugitive Man
Hunting Violent Criminals for the FBI and Searching for Justice for the Innocent Convict
Robert K. Cromwell
Copyright © 2016 by Robert K. Cromwell
MCP Books
322 First Avenue N, 5th Floor
Minneapolis, MN 55401
612.455.2293
www.mcpbooks.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.
Note: The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and not those of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.The Federal Bureau of Investigation does not endorse, approve, or authorize this publication.
ISBN: 978-1-63505-241-1
To my brother, Retired Princeton Township Police Captain
David Cromwell, who set the example that started me on my way to
a great law enforcement career.
And to my dear wife, Rosa Lee Cromwell, who for more than 40 years
has always had more confidence in me than I’ve had in myself.
Thank you, Rosa.
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Introduction
Chapter One: Background
Chapter Two: N.C.I.S.: The Naval Criminal Investigative Service
Chapter Three: The FBI
Chapter Four: Arthur Reed Collum: UFAP - Murder, Armed Robbery
Chapter Five: Spins
Chapter Six: Houston SWAT
Chapter Seven: My Favorite Bank Robbery
Chapter Eight: Leonard Capaldi
Chapter Nine: Some Interesting Arrests
Chapter Ten: Special Agent Phil Stukes
Chapter Eleven: Marcus Hamilton: UFAP - Capital Murder
Chapter Twelve: Crimestoppers
Chapter Thirteen: America's Most Wanted
Chapter Fourteen: James Randall Sanders: UFAP - Armed Robbery
Chapter Fifteen: FBIHQ - Safe Streets
Chapter Sixteen: Phoenix
Chapter Seventeen: JDIG
Chapter Eighteen: Intelligence Development Unit
Chapter Nineteen: Mississippi
Chapter Twenty: 9/11
Chapter Twenty-One: Applicant Section
Chapter Twenty-Two: Special Agent in Charge
Chapter Twenty-Three: My Friend, James Bain
Chapter Twenty-Four: Lessons Learned
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six: Causes of Wrongful Convictions
Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Bottom Line
Thanks
“Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never really care for anything else thereafter.”
(Ernest Hemingway, “On the Blue Water,” 1936)
Jeffrey Holt – UFAP – Kidnapping, Robbery, Rape, Attempted Murder
Jeffrey Holt was wanted for Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution (UFAP) for kidnapping, robbery, rape and attempted murder. Late one evening Holt had broken into a young woman’s home in central California and had brutally raped, tortured, kidnaped and attempted to murder her. He had almost been successful.
When I first heard of him, Holt had been on the run for some time. Using information provided by the Sacramento Division of the FBI, and working with other reliable sources, I developed a lead on Holt at his potential place of employment. Holt worked under an assumed name in the restaurant of a hotel several miles south of Houston. He was one of the hotel’s friendly bartenders. Another agent and I went to the bar, played some pool, drank some iced tea, and waited for Jeffrey’s arrival. Jeff strolled in just in time to start his shift. We grabbed him before he could don his apron. When confronted, he admitted his identity and was handcuffed, searched, and taken into custody without incident.
After his arrest, we transported Holt back to the Houston FBI office. After taking off his handcuffs, we sat down with Jeffrey, and I read him his Constitutional Rights. He stated he understood his rights, he did not want to speak with an attorney, signed the Advice of Rights form, and declared he was willing to talk. We then started talking. We talked about the Houston Rockets and the Houston Astros, we talked bartending (something I knew nothing about), and we talked of my experiences in the Navy. We did not speak of the crimes he was accused of for some time. After several minutes, I sent a new agent, who was sitting in on the interview with me, off to get a can of Pepsi for Jeffrey. The new agent came back with the Pepsi and asked if he could see me in the hall. I walked out, and he said, “Bob, why are you being nice to that shitbird? I can’t stand being in the same room with him.” I told him to just bear with me; we would talk about it later. I then returned, and Jeffrey and I continued our friendly conversation.
After several minutes of talk to get the point across to Jeffrey that I thought he was a decent person, I finally got around to the crime. Since we had treated him well and developed a good rapport, he seemed convinced that we thought he was a regular guy who had simply made a serious mistake. I made it clear that we wanted to offer him some help, but I also suggested that he needed to offer an explanation for his outrageous behavior. It wasn’t as if I was asking him if he did it. I was just trying to let him see that we knew he was not a bad person, that we knew he had committed the crimes for which he’d been arrested, but that we also knew that it must have been an out-of-character mistake, one which he simply needed to explain.
After much hesitation, he confessed that he had a drug problem and explained that, on the night of the crime, he had been high. He admitted that he had observed the attractive victim through her window and had climbed through that window into her home. He then asserted the rest of the night was a blank. He claimed that he couldn’t remember what he had actually done to her. However, that was all we (and the prosecutor) needed.
After lodging Jeffrey in the Harris County Jail in downtown Houston, I spoke with the new agent about his impatience and dislike of sitting with Holt. I explained that we might have just prevented the victim in this case from having to go to trial. Furthermore, if Holt hadn’t confessed, his defense attorney would have tried to make the victim look somehow responsible for the events of that horrible evening, and going to trial could have been akin to another atrocious assault on the woman.
As of this writing, Jeffrey Holt remains an inmate in the California Department of Corrections.
INTRODUCTION
After six years as a Cryptology Technician in the Navy, I spent a year at the College of New Jersey finishing my bachelor’s degree before becoming a New Jersey police officer. A few years later, I became an NCIS special agent and, finally, an FBI special agent. I spent 22 years in the FBI. For more than half of those years, I worked within the FBI’s Violent Crime Program. For eight of those years, I principally hunted violent fugitives in Houston, Texas. That’s a great place to hunt fugitives, and I was good at it. It was addictive. Throughout my career, nothing really came close to the kick I got out of tracking down and catching a fugitive. I still miss it, but realistically know I would be hard pressed to run and climb over the fences I once climbed in Houston.
I also had a talent for getting people to talk and a knack for developing informants. The two go hand in hand. Outstanding informants were one of the reasons I was able to make so many arrests. In developing good informants to find fugitives, I found it especially important to learn to move amongst Houston’s street people and the people serving, selling, and sometimes exploiting them. Many of the violent people we were attempting to take off the street were preying on unfortunate street
people, many of who suffered from significant mental disabilities. It remains true to this day. Numerous homeless people suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disease, and often substance abuse. Frequently, the fugitives we hunted, while hiding from the law, were taking advantage of those most vulnerable people. Through regular and repeated contacts, I got to know some of the dedicated men and women providing services to those street people and eventually convinced many that our taking violent fugitives off the street represented a clear benefit to their clientele. Ultimately, trust blossomed, and many of those serving the homeless, and even some of the homeless themselves, helped us discover fugitives’ whereabouts. It was good for everyone involved, except, of course, the fugitives.
I enjoyed many successes over the course of several years, developed great sources and made many arrests. In 1991 I received a commendation and cash award from
Director of the FBI, for making the Houston fugitive program the “most proficient in the Nation” and for leading the Houston Division in arrests for five consecutive years.
The fact that I led the division in arrests for five years sounds good and was certainly a commendable accomplishment, but it should be put in context. Many outstanding agents investigate complex cases for months, or even years, before making an arrest. Most of my cases involved tracking people down, taking them into custody, trying to get them to talk, and then turning them over to the U.S. Marshal’s Service or local sheriff’s department for transfer to the jurisdiction where their crime was committed. Additionally, many excellent FBI agents work in the intelligence or counterterrorism arena for years, even decades, doing exceptional and very important work without ever making an arrest. So, while I was proud of my award from the director and loved what I was doing, I knew I was one of many agents doing good work for the FBI.
By most any measure, I had significant law enforcement experience on which to call, starting as a street cop and ending as the Special Agent in Charge of one of the FBI’s 56 field divisions. I’ve arrested many criminals, and I recognize that the overwhelming majority of people convicted and sent to prison are guilty. However, I’ve also come to learn that many innocent people are in prison as well. After retiring from the FBI at the end of 2005, I became acquainted with the Innocence Project of Florida and recognized the great work they were doing in attempting to exonerate innocent people through DNA testing and other means. These are not people who are just “technically innocent”; they are actual innocent people who have been convicted and imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. Since 2007, I have been on the Board of Directors of the Innocence Project of Florida. (www.floridainnocence.org). I give my time and money to help the Innocence Project because the Innocence Project’s mission is clearly in the best interest of justice. I simply find it unconscionable for us to ignore the innocent who are in prison for crimes they did not commit.
Our criminal justice system desperately needs some fine-tuning. Near the end of this book, I have provided a few simple recommendations on modifying critical investigative practices. The International Association of Chiefs of Police, an organization of which I am a Life Member, supports many similar recommendations. It’s time every law enforcement agency adopts those changes. It’s a matter of fundamental fairness and, in many cases, the difference between incarceration and freedom for an innocent person. (And every innocent person in jail may equate to a guilty violent person on the street, preying on the public.)
CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND
After fulfilling my Navy enlistment and obtaining my Bachelor’s Degree, I had the good fortune to spend nearly four years as a Montgomery Township police officer. Montgomery Township is a central New Jersey community bordering Princeton, Rocky Hill, Hillsborough Township, Hopewell Township, and Franklin Township.
The patrol officer has one of the most dangerous jobs in law enforcement. I arrested hundreds of violent felons during my time with the FBI, many more than most police officers do in a career, but I had a huge advantage. I always knew I was confronting a felon, a person considered “armed and dangerous.” I approached each arrest as a tactical problem and, with few exceptions, had another agent with me. Additionally, I attempted to arrange things so the first time a fugitive was concerned about my presence, I had the drop on him, and he was staring at my badge and weapon pointed at him from a short distance away. That, typically, made for cooperative fugitives and a safer working environment.
In contrast, many police officers on patrol routinely pull over traffic offenders, respond to alarms, and handle domestic disturbance calls alone. The officer stopping a traffic violator never knows if he or she is pulling over a mom late to pick up her kids from school or a felon who just shot someone or robbed a bank. The majority of traffic stops are non-events, which often leads to a false sense of security or comfort zone that can be shattered in an instant. Traffic stops really are one of the most dangerous jobs in law enforcement.
While police officers on patrol are in a hazardous line of work, the police officer’s job also has its lighter moments. One evening, I found myself behind a vehicle traveling slowly and swerving all over the road. I activated the overhead lights on my patrol car, and the vehicle in front of me pulled onto the edge of a lawn. I approached and found myself face to face with a 70-something-year-old lady, nicely dressed as if coming from church. She smelled of alcohol and was obviously impaired. I helped her out of the car and quickly determined she was having a hard time standing. She informed me that she had consumed a “bit of wine” with her lady friends. I took her back to police headquarters, sat her down in an interview room, and started to warm up the breathalyzer, the machine used for checking a person’s blood alcohol level. In those days, the machine had to warm up for twenty minutes before a test could be conducted, so as the machine warmed up, I filled out paperwork.
As I prepared the documents inherent to her arrest, the little old lady just sat across from me, swaying back and forth, patiently waiting to blow into the Breathalyzer. However, after a few minutes, her rocking motion ceased, and she leaned forward, across the table, and stared at my chest. I wasn’t exactly sure what she was looking at until she said, “Cromwell...are you related to the undertaker in Hopewell?” She had noticed my nametag. I said, “Yes, John Cromwell is my father’s cousin.”
The sweet old lady then began, “Oh, he is such a nice man. A few years ago, he buried my husband, and he couldn’t have been nicer to me.” She got a bit more animated and a bit louder, stating, “But I’ve known John Cromwell since he was a little boy, and you can ask anyone in Hopewell, and they’ll tell you what a nice man John Cromwell is!”
I thought for a moment what a sweet little old drunk lady she was. Then, after hesitating just a moment, she added, “You know, I just can’t believe he’s related to a son-of-a-bitch like you!” I laughed out loud and so did she.
Looking back, nice old ladies or not, drunk drivers are a serious threat to the rest of us and must be taken off the street, so I have no regrets regarding the many DUIs I locked up while an officer. However, if I had it to do over again, I would have been a little easier on young people committing minor driving infractions. Having now raised three sons with my wife, and knowing many sad stories behind the lives of many kids with whom I’ve come in contact, I would have been more understanding with the teenagers I dealt with while a police officer. Many of them had it tough at home and could have used more understanding and compassion than I sometimes provided as the “son-of-a-bitch” cop I was.
One particularly valuable lesson learned during my time in Montgomery occurred while participating in a sexual assault investigation. It is a lesson that has stuck with me to this day. The victim, a woman in her late teens, gave a detailed description of the assailant’s vehicle including that it had an orange exterior and black interior. The vehicle also had unusual door locking mechanisms, which she described as “light switches turned sideways.
” She also recalled that the vehicle had three rotting apple cores on the front passenger floorboard.
Our investigation determined that the vehicle was very likely a Dodge Colt, and an inquiry with the New Jersey Division of Motor Vehicles revealed only 35 orange/black Colts registered in the State of New Jersey. The victim also sat down with a police artist and provided a description of the assailant, resulting in a drawing of the suspect being circulated throughout the area.
We quickly identified as a suspect a young man who lived in a nearby community and owned an orange/black Dodge Colt. His vehicle was the correct model and color. He also looked like he could have posed for the artist’s drawing. His alibi for the time of the assault was weak. The icing on the cake occurred when I walked by his car late at night and clearly saw three rotting apple cores on the passenger side floorboard. The assistant county attorney, the other investigators, and I all felt we had our man.
We were wrong.
As we were driving our suspect to the county attorney’s office to participate in a court-ordered lineup, we received a radio call notifying us that another guy who looked like the drawing of the suspect and who was also driving the somewhat unique orange and black Dodge Colt had been stopped by one of our patrol cars. (By the way, statistically, officers on patrol are the ones who solve most crimes.) Rotting apple cores were observed on the vehicle’s floorboard. In a subsequent lineup featuring both suspects, the victim immediately identified the guy picked up by the patrol officer as her assailant. While the police artist’s drawing favored the innocent subject, our victim was unequivocal when seeing both the actual subject and our incorrect subject in a lineup.