Bobcat
01-10-2015, 08:02 AM
It began nearly four decades ago when a British-flagged yacht fled police during a night chase at sea. At the helm: A man hinted to be a federal drug informant.
It ended last month in Mexico, where the fleeing skipper was run to ground by a lucky tip.
Now, Robert Woodring is serving the prison term he artfully avoided for so many years — at age 81.
Robert Woodring captured poster
Robert Woodring, 81, was a South Florida fugitive who hid out for 37 years, authorities said. He was caught in Mexico in December. (Sun Sentinel)
Woodring, who used to live in Fort Lauderdale, Boynton Beach and Pompano Beach, was supposed to start serving a federal prison sentence in 1977 for crimes committed earlier that decade. But he escaped to live free — until authorities tracked him down last month in Mexico, federal prosecutors said Friday.
His capture was a lucky break.
FBI agents were seeking another fugitive in the Guadalajara area and received a tip that Woodring was a wanted man and living in the region, U.S. Marshals spokesman Barry Golden said.
Mexican authorities questioned Woodring and turned him over to the feds after concluding he had no legal right to remain in Mexico.
It was unclear Friday how long Woodring had been there or what he was doing, but Golden said Woodring lived with a Nicaraguan woman there.
"For someone to be on the run for 37 years, I can only imagine that guy was bragging that he eluded capture for more than three decades because, after all this time, how would anyone in Guadalajara have known anything about this?" Golden said.
Woodring first tried to elude authorities on Jan. 14, 1975, when U.S. Customs Service agents went to Haulover Inlet to seize the Gemini, Woodring's 60-foot Pacemaker twin-screw motor yacht, appeals court records show.
Wanted poster for Robert Woodring from the 1970s or 1980s
Wanted poster for Robert Woodring from the 1970s or 1980s
Document
But as the agents, accompanied by Dade County police officers, arrived on an unmarked boat, Woodring headed south, not stopping his British-registered vessel, records show.
Officials chased him into the Atlantic Ocean. Two police helicopters and a Coast Guard cutter joined the pursuit. They made radio contact with Woodring and told him to "heave to" and let them board. He refused to stop.
"He [later] testified that he believed that he was not required to do so because he was by then in international waters … did not know the identity of his pursuers or that they were officers and … was fearful of harm to his vessel or his person," the appellate judges wrote.
Woodring cut off radio contact and the chase was abandoned at nightfall. He was arrested in South Florida three days later, without the boat.
He was later convicted of removing a yacht to prevent authorized government seizure and was sentenced to 10 months in prison in October 1975.
For reasons that were unclear Friday, Woodring remained free and was later found guilty of mail fraud and mail fraud conspiracy for a scam involving the yacht. He was sentenced to serve a total of 7 1/2 years for the 1975 and 1977 convictions and ordered to surrender in September 1977.
A Sun Sentinel newspaper article from 1986 identified Woodring as a Drug Enforcement Administration informant who was caught on surveillance tapes from 1977 making incriminating statements to another man about Fort Lauderdale lawyer Ray Sandstrom. Sandstrom, who was never charged, called Woodring a "con man" at the time and said he did nothing wrong.
Authorities charged Woodring — in his absence in 1984 — with bond-jumping and failing to surrender to prison. He was recently transferred from Los Angeles to the federal detention center in Miami and is due in court Jan. 14 to tell a judge if he plans to fight the bond-jumping case. He has already begun serving the 7 1/2 year prison term for his convictions from the 1970s.
pmcmahon@tribune.com, 954-356-4533 or Twitter @SentinelPaula
It ended last month in Mexico, where the fleeing skipper was run to ground by a lucky tip.
Now, Robert Woodring is serving the prison term he artfully avoided for so many years — at age 81.
Robert Woodring captured poster
Robert Woodring, 81, was a South Florida fugitive who hid out for 37 years, authorities said. He was caught in Mexico in December. (Sun Sentinel)
Woodring, who used to live in Fort Lauderdale, Boynton Beach and Pompano Beach, was supposed to start serving a federal prison sentence in 1977 for crimes committed earlier that decade. But he escaped to live free — until authorities tracked him down last month in Mexico, federal prosecutors said Friday.
His capture was a lucky break.
FBI agents were seeking another fugitive in the Guadalajara area and received a tip that Woodring was a wanted man and living in the region, U.S. Marshals spokesman Barry Golden said.
Mexican authorities questioned Woodring and turned him over to the feds after concluding he had no legal right to remain in Mexico.
It was unclear Friday how long Woodring had been there or what he was doing, but Golden said Woodring lived with a Nicaraguan woman there.
"For someone to be on the run for 37 years, I can only imagine that guy was bragging that he eluded capture for more than three decades because, after all this time, how would anyone in Guadalajara have known anything about this?" Golden said.
Woodring first tried to elude authorities on Jan. 14, 1975, when U.S. Customs Service agents went to Haulover Inlet to seize the Gemini, Woodring's 60-foot Pacemaker twin-screw motor yacht, appeals court records show.
Wanted poster for Robert Woodring from the 1970s or 1980s
Wanted poster for Robert Woodring from the 1970s or 1980s
Document
But as the agents, accompanied by Dade County police officers, arrived on an unmarked boat, Woodring headed south, not stopping his British-registered vessel, records show.
Officials chased him into the Atlantic Ocean. Two police helicopters and a Coast Guard cutter joined the pursuit. They made radio contact with Woodring and told him to "heave to" and let them board. He refused to stop.
"He [later] testified that he believed that he was not required to do so because he was by then in international waters … did not know the identity of his pursuers or that they were officers and … was fearful of harm to his vessel or his person," the appellate judges wrote.
Woodring cut off radio contact and the chase was abandoned at nightfall. He was arrested in South Florida three days later, without the boat.
He was later convicted of removing a yacht to prevent authorized government seizure and was sentenced to 10 months in prison in October 1975.
For reasons that were unclear Friday, Woodring remained free and was later found guilty of mail fraud and mail fraud conspiracy for a scam involving the yacht. He was sentenced to serve a total of 7 1/2 years for the 1975 and 1977 convictions and ordered to surrender in September 1977.
A Sun Sentinel newspaper article from 1986 identified Woodring as a Drug Enforcement Administration informant who was caught on surveillance tapes from 1977 making incriminating statements to another man about Fort Lauderdale lawyer Ray Sandstrom. Sandstrom, who was never charged, called Woodring a "con man" at the time and said he did nothing wrong.
Authorities charged Woodring — in his absence in 1984 — with bond-jumping and failing to surrender to prison. He was recently transferred from Los Angeles to the federal detention center in Miami and is due in court Jan. 14 to tell a judge if he plans to fight the bond-jumping case. He has already begun serving the 7 1/2 year prison term for his convictions from the 1970s.
pmcmahon@tribune.com, 954-356-4533 or Twitter @SentinelPaula