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.