Pubdate: Wed, 25 Oct. 2000 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Feedback: http://dmnweb.dallasnews.com/letters/ Address: P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, Texas 75265 Contact: 2000 The Dallas Morning News Forum: http://forums.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/wwwthreads.pl Fax: (972) 263-0456 Author: Manolo Barco Note: This story also appears in the Plano Morning News. SUSPECT IN PLANO DEATHS WALKED OUT OF DRUG CLINIC A Plano man arrested last week in connection with the killings of a young Brazilian couple was free on a temporary pass from a court-ordered substance-abuse treatment center on the day of the slayings, officials said Tuesday. Michael Adam Sigala, 22, was ordered to undergo residential treatment at the Dallas County Judicial Treatment Center in Wilmer in June, after he violated terms of his probation on a robbery charge. On Aug. 22, he received a one-day pass to leave the facility's grounds. "He was out looking for a job," Cynthia Hatten, a supervisor at the center, said Mr. Sigala told officials at the time. That's the day Plano police say Mr. Sigala fatally shot 28-year-old Kleber Santos at his apartment near Spring Creek Parkway and Avenue K in northern Plano. Mr. Santos and his wife, 25-year-old Lilian Santos, were found by a neighbor the next day. Both had been shot, and Mrs. Santos had been sexually assaulted, police said. Plano police arrested Mr. Sigala last Thursday, after linking him to the sale of the couple's stolen wedding rings at a Dallas pawnshop. Mr. Sigala later gave detectives a written statement in which he admitted killing Mr. Santos but not his wife, police said. Through jail officials, Mr. Sigala declined to be interviewed Tuesday. Officials at the treatment center declined to comment on the specifics of Mr. Sigala's case. "It's a shame any time a crime like this occurs," Julien Devereux, the treatment program's regional director, said Tuesday. "Our prayers are with the family." Under the program's guidelines, Mr. Sigala was responsible for finding a job before he was released from the treatment center. On Aug. 22, he was issueda day pass to search for work and to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous meeting, Ms. Hatten said. He was scheduled to return by 11:30 p.m. and did, Ms. Hatten said. The treatment center is used by the Dallas criminal courts system as a last-chance alternative for substance abusers serious about getting their acts together, officials at the center said. It is monitored by a private company -- Cornell Corrections -- and is not a gated compound. There are no bars or barbed wire to deter clients from leaving. The center has the capacity to accommodate 306 clients. About 70 percent of the people who enter the program complete it successfully, officials at the center said. The center offers GED classes as well as vocational training, officials said. Mr. Sigala's stay at the Wilmer facility was his second. After pleading guilty last July to a 1999 robbery charge, he spent 30 days in state prison before being released on probation. As a condition of that probation, he spent 180 days at the Wilmer facility and was released in February. A month later, state District Judge Manny Alvarez ordered Mr. Sigala back to treatment after prosecutors moved to revoke his probation. Mr. Sigala, they said, had violated his probation by using marijuana, cocaine and opiates. Mr. Sigala returned to the center June 13. He left the facility without permission Sept. 13, with 30 days remaining to complete the program, Ms. Hatten said. According to a presentencing investigation conducted by Dallas County probation officers, Mr. Sigala dropped out of school after 11th grade but obtained a GED and had worked as a security guard at Lone Star Park. According to Dallas County records, he served a year of probation in 1995 for a theft he committed in McKinney while he was a juvenile. In 1997, he was sentenced to 40 days in jail after pleading guilty to possession of marijuana charges. In March 1999, he was arrested for stealing $169 worth of CDs. He later served a 90-day jail sentence. Two months later, records show, he robbed a Home Depot in Garland. Police reports show that Mr. Sigala was seen by a store employee stuffing an electronic volt meter and a garage door entry key pad inside his pants. After employees confronted Mr. Sigala, he sprayed them with pepper spray, police reports said. Mr. Sigala also punched one of the employees in the chest, police reports said. Court records show that Mr. Sigala admitted to the incident and told officers he often stole from stores to get money to buy drugs and because it was exciting. Mr. Sigala was being held without bail Tuesday at the Collin County Jail in McKinney, charged with capital murder. To date, no one else has been charged in the killings of Kleber and Lilian Santos. - ---