Virginia fugitive agrees to return to face charges

Robert Macy

Friday, July 16, 1999 | 9:31 a.m.

A Virginia teen-ager who vanished two years ago on the eve of his sentencing on robbery charges has agreed to return to face those charges.

Sage Alexander Weakland was thought to have drowned in a boating accident until he was arrested here Wednesday by an elite fugitive apprehension team. Virginia authorities have suspected Weakland faked his death to avoid going to jail for three years on robbery and conspiracy charges.

Weakland, 18, appeared in Clark County Justice Court Friday morning and waved his right to an extradition hearing. The move cleared the way for Virginia authorities to pick him up and return him to face armed robbery charges.

Weakland was arrested Wednesday in Las Vegas, two years after vanishing in a boating accident the night before his sentencing.

His family had maintained that he went overboard during the July 29, 1997, accident and died. But authorities suspected that Weakland, then 16, faked his death to avoid going to jail for three years on robbery and conspiracy charges.

Weakland appeared in court Friday handcuffed to shackles around his waist, wearing jeans and a black shirt. He fidgeted as Justice Pro Tem Melanie Tobiasson read the charges against him and asked if he wanted to waive an extradition hearing.

"Yes, ma'am," he replied softly.

Virginia authorities have 21 days to pick up Weakland and return him to the state. It was not known immediately when he would be returned.

Weakland was arrested Wednesday at a Las Vegas apartment by 10 members of the Criminal Apprehension Teams (CATS). The organization is made up of FBI agents and local police who specialize in tracking down fugitives who surface here.

Al Cervantes, head of the CATS team, said Weakland was tracked to a local apartment and fought with authorities when they located him.

Weakland disappeared after his father's 19-foot fishing boat slammed into a merchant ship anchored in the James River in Newport News, Va.

His father, Eugene Weakland, went overboard and was rescued. Helicopters, divers and sonar equipment searched the river bottom for months for the younger Weakland.

"We had a lot of doubt he was dead," said Major Mike Nicely of the Gloucester County sheriff's department. "For one, the body never showed up."

Weakland likely will have to do a lot more time than the three years to which prosecutors originally had agreed. He now faces up to life in prison for robbery, plus up to 10 years for fleeing, said Bob Hicks, the commonwealth's attorney who prosecuted Weakland and placed his name on a national crime computer identifying him as a fugitive.

The Weaklands have said in previous interviews had no reason to think their son survived the boating accident.