Z
Identify this Man!!! Link to Pic
Thu Jan 1 20:39:57 2004
213.122.154.44

go to

http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/bonitanews/article/0,2071,NPDN_14894_2545022,00.html

and check out the pics of this man. Do you recognise him?
If so, what is his background?


Bonita Springs murder suspect arrested in England
By PAUL PFEIFER, pmpfeifer@naplesnews.com
January 1, 2004

A man who has eluded authorities for nearly nine years after a notorious murder-for-hire plot in Bonita Springs has been arrested in England in connection with the brutal slaying of a police officer there.

Law enforcement authorities say Nathan Wayne Coleman, who was arrested in London on Wednesday, is actually David Bieber, who has been wanted in Lee County on a charge of first-degree murder since 1995.

English authorities had been searching for Coleman since a constable was shot to death and two others injured while trying to arrest a man in Leeds on Dec. 26 for possession of a stolen car, according to the Daily Express in London. The man had lived in England for several years before his arrest, the newspaper reported.

The case has created a firestorm of debate in England over whether to arm police. The officers shot on Dec. 26 were unarmed, as are most of England's law enforcement authorities. The case has dominated British media reports in recent days and the first British reporters had already arrived in Lee County by the end of the day Wednesday.

In Southwest Florida, investigators have been looking for Bieber, who is now 37, since shortly after the Feb. 9, 1995, murder of Bonita Springs bodybuilder Markus Mueller. They say Bieber, who lived in Fort Myers at the time, orchestrated Mueller's killing, paying a little more than $1,000 to have the Frieburg, Germany, native shot in the doorway of Mueller's Hacienda Village condominium in Bonita Springs.

Bieber also is wanted for the attempted murder of his estranged girlfriend, Michelle Stanforth, who was shot at in front of her residence at Suntree Apartments in August 1995.

Word of Bieber's whereabouts began to roll into Lee County authorities Tuesday afternoon. Sheriff Rodney Shoap said British authorities contacted the Lee County department, saying a fingerprint lifted off their shooting suspect's car came back as a match to Bieber.

By 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, British authorities contacted Lee County with the news that Bieber was in custody and the fingerprints were a match.

"The effectiveness of it all just overwhelmed me," Shoap said.

It was unknown Wednesday how long Bieber had been overseas. Shoap said the stories are conflicting and range from two years to six years.

British newspapers say Bieber had been working as a nightclub doorman in West Yorkshire under the name of Nathan Wayne Coleman. He was married briefly in 1997, reports said. The British newspaper The Mirror quotes Coleman's ex-wife, Denise Dunn, as saying Coleman was a fitness buff who had a fondness for martial arts. Several published reports say Coleman lived out of a suitcase and never seemed settled.

Sheriff's office spokesman Deputy Larry King said Bieber acquired a South Carolina driver license and passport in May 1996 using the Coleman alias. Bieber intended to leave the country for France in June 1996, but it was unknown when he actually left, King said. The Coleman passport has not been used since 2002, King said.

"The question now is: Was he coming back and forth?" Shoap said.

The Bieber case drew national attention in January 1997 when it was featured on the popular TV show "America's Most Wanted." Tips and sightings flowed in from various parts of the country, as well as from all over Florida, after the initial airing and from time to time when the segment appeared in reruns.

However, Bieber continued to elude detectives, who were flown across the country to follow up on several leads.

"If you're investigating a lead and if that person's been there, there's usually evidence that tells you they were there," Shoap said. "Most of the leads in this case were very cold."

Multiple motives drove Bieber to arrange Mueller's murder, investigators say. Both Mueller and Bieber were involved romantically with Danielle Labelle of Bonita Springs. Labelle married Bieber a week before the murder, but then left him to be with Mueller.

In addition to the romantic entanglement, investigators say the two men were competitors in the lucrative and competitive business of trafficking steroids. And, detectives say, Mueller humiliated Bieber when the two got into an argument in front of friends just days before the murder.

John Saladino, now 30, of Fort Myers was the middle man who arranged both Lee County shootings. He's serving a 15-year prison sentence at the Desoto Annex in Arcadia. David Snipes of North Fort Myers carried out the crimes, later spending the money he made on new tires for his car and a pair of sneakers. He is serving a life sentence at the Taylor Correctional Institution in Perry.

Snipes, now 26, originally was sentenced to death, but the Florida Supreme Court reduced the sentence to life in prison without parole in a 1999 ruling.

West Yorkshire Police would not confirm Wednesday whether the man in their custody was Nathan Coleman or David Bieber, or discuss how authorities discovered the Bonita Springs murder suspect.

"We're in the position now that we do have somebody in custody for the murder and under British law we won't discuss anything because a criminal matter is ongoing," Inspector Roger Essell said.

According to the agency's Web site, a person tipped off West Yorkshire police around 2 a.m. Wednesday, London time, to a Northumbria address. Police arrested a man in his late 30s in connection with murder of officer Ian Broadhurst and attempted murders of officers Neil Roper and James Banks on Dec. 26 in Leeds, British police said.

Essell expected the agency to announce more information and possibly confirm the man's identity early Thursday morning in London. Several British agencies would decide whether Bieber would eventually be sent to face murder charges in the United States that could bring the death penalty, which is not used in England, Essell said.

"It's very complicated," he said.

Randall McGruther, chief assistant state's attorney for the 20th Judicial Circuit of Florida, said any extradition order would originate locally, but would be carried out by the U.S. State Department. British authorities would have the first opportunity to prosecute Bieber, McGruther said.

"It's too early to say what procedures will be followed," McGruther said. "They'll obviously want to prosecute him there."

A Washington, D.C.-based British Embassy spokesman said the country wouldn't send a British person to face the death penalty in the United States but wasn't certain whether they'd allow a U.S. resident.

"The U.K.'s policy is absolutely clear ... which is that we're against it," said Steve Atkins, an embassy spokesman. "Our policy is clear to the U.S. on that."

Sheryl Wooley, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Porter Goss, R-Sanibel, said the office wouldn't intervene in an extradition case with England without a request from local police or the judicial system.

"We really don't get involved unless there is a problem with the process in our country working with another country," she said. "We've never been involved with something in England, but obviously there's a relationship there."

The office has dealt with extradition cases, she said, but "usually with Third World countries or where there isn't a relationship."

Staff writers Karie Partington and Janine Zeitlin contributed to this report.