The New York Times/Patricia Mazzei and Nick Madigan: Who Is Cesar Sayoc, the Mail Bombing Suspect?

The New York Times
Who Is Cesar Sayoc, the Mail Bombing Suspect?
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Cesar Sayoc Jr., who is accused of sending explosive packages to several of the president’s critics, in a photo taken from social media.

By Patricia Mazzei and Nick Madigan

    Oct. 26, 2018

AVENTURA, Fla. — Cesar Altieri Sayoc Jr., a South Florida man charged in connection with a string of bombs mailed to prominent Democrats, appeared to have a lively social media presence, where he frequently posted in right-wing circles and shared conservative news stories and condemnations of liberal politicians.

Mr. Sayoc, 56, appeared to post frequently in Facebook groups like “The Trump American Party” and “Vote Trump 2020” using an account with the name “Cesar Altieri Randazzo.” The account, which was suspended on Friday after reports that Mr. Sayoc was a suspect in the bombing case, shared photos of Mr. Sayoc attending political events and working out at the gym.

Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, the account shared news stories from Breitbart, video clips from Fox News, and posts from pages like “Handcuffs for Hillary.” That year, the account included numerous photos and videos of Mr. Sayoc, a registered Republican, at a Trump campaign rally, wearing a red “Make American Great Again” hat.

“We have found and immediately removed the suspect’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram,” Facebook said in a statement. “We will also continue to remove content that praises or supports the bombing attempt or the suspect as soon as we’re aware.”

A Twitter account that federal prosecutors say is Mr. Sayoc’s had frequently posted attacks on immigrants, gun-control advocates and prominent Democrats. In one tweet posted several weeks ago, the account posted a photo of Mr. Sayoc holding a “CNN Sucks” sign.

Another message sent last month included a threat to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., along with an aerial photo of what appeared to be Mr. Biden’s house. And on Wednesday, after the federal authorities had recovered a package that had been mailed to the billionaire George Soros, it included a post that was critical of Mr. Soros and former President Barack Obama.

Here is what is known about the suspect:

• Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Mr. Sayoc had been charged with five federal crimes, and faces up to 58 years in prison if convicted. Read more about the charges against him and how the authorities used fingerprint evidence to build their case here.

• Mr. Sayoc has a lengthy criminal history in Florida dating back to 1991 that includes felony theft, drug and fraud charges, as well as being accused of threatening to use a bomb, public records show.
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Cesar Sayoc Jr.CreditBroward County Sheriff's Office

• His criminal record from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement indicates that at the time of his last arrest in 2015, he was 5-foot-11 and 215 pounds. He has brown eyes, black hair and a scar on his left arm, the records said, and was born in New York. The records listed Mr. Sayoc’s occupation as “manager.”

• Broward County court records show that Mr. Sayoc was ordered to provide DNA in 2014 and again in 2015 as a condition of probation for two different grand theft charges That DNA would likely have been submitted to state and federal criminal DNA databases, which are searchable by the F.B.I.

• According to a 2012 bankruptcy petition filed in Miami, Mr. Sayoc resided at the time at his mother’s home. “Lives w/mom,” a handwritten note on the petition said. “Has no furniture.”

• The suspect was arrested at about 11 a.m. in the parking lot of a shopping center in Plantation, Fla., west of Fort Lauderdale. A white van that was covered in stickers was towed away from the scene in the late morning.

• Mr. Sayoc once worked as a manager for traveling “male revue shows,” according to the wife of one of Mr. Sayoc’s business partners.
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Law enforcement removed a covered van in Plantation, Fla., on Friday.CreditSaul Martinez for The New York Times

• According to a spokesman for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, a man with the same name attended the university for one academic year, 1983-1984. The spokesman, Buffie Stephens, said the university was looking for any records associated with his behavior.
A connection to a ‘male revue’ show

Rachel Humberger, the wife of one of Mr. Sayoc’s business partners, said Mr. Sayoc used to be a manager for traveling “male revue shows.”

“It was a traveling show, but I don’t know what his role was, whether he booked the gigs or what,” Ms. Humberger said.

Ms. Humberger described the shows as being in the style of “Magic Mike,” a reference to a 2012 movie about male strippers.

More recently, she said Mr. Sayoc had been talking to her husband about starting a new business: Fish farms.

“Cesar had opened a bank account” for the new business, she said. “But that’s as far as it got.”

Ms. Humberger also said that she found Mr. Sayoc to be friendly, based on the short interactions she had with him. “He was always sweet and a nice guy in general,” she said.

Ms. Humberger said she never talked politics with Mr. Sayoc, but had been told he played college soccer.
A Florida resident described seeing a van that appeared similar to the one towed away
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A local Florida resident remembered seeing a van covered in stickers supporting President Trump.CreditDavid Cypkin

The suspect’s white van reminded David Cypkin and his girlfriend, who until recently lived in Aventura, Fla., of a van often parked in the parking lot of a local strip mall, the Shoppes at the Waterways. Mr. Cypkin shared photographs with The New York Times that showed a van covered with a number of stickers bearing the image of President Trump and at least one anti-CNN sticker.

Mr. Cypkin, 39, said he lived near the mall and would see the van in the early morning when he walked his dog.

“It struck me because of the crazy conspiratorial stickers covering the windows,” said Mr. Cypkin, a documentary film producer and editor. “It was unsettling, and also it seemed to be occupied. Sometimes the door would be ajar or a window would be open, which indicated to me that maybe somebody was living in the van.”

“I never wanted to get too close,” he added, though he saw the owner at least once. He described him as an older white man.

Mr. Cypkin shared a cellphone picture he took of the van in the early morning of Dec. 31. The photo shows a van similar to the one seen in footage being picked up by law enforcement this morning. He said he called the F.B.I. after learning of the arrest.

On Friday, his girlfriend saw the van on the TV news and sent him a screen shot: “Is this the van from the Waterways?”

Read more here.

Reporting was contributed by William K. Rashbaum, Richard A. Oppel Jr., Kevin Roose and Alan Feuer from New York, and Adam Goldman from Washington.

Related Coverage

Bomb Suspect Arrested in Florida; Charged With 5 Counts
Oct. 26, 2018
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What We Know About the Mail Bombs Sent to Trump Critics
Oct. 25, 2018
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