Carpinteria – Almost exactly a year ago on May 1, 2013, the Carpinteria Motel 6 was the scene of an assault that culminated in the stabbing of a man by his co-worker. Both men had argued over their area sales efforts, in which, according to Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover “the two worked together selling boxes of candy door-to-door under the false pretense of raising money for a youth program,” and when the fight ended with one of the men being stabbed, his cohort immediately fled the area.
In spite of an intensive search effort on the part of law enforcement at the time, the suspect, identified as Robert Lee Billie, 30, remained at large…until the evening of May 1, 2014 when SBSD patrol officers working just north of the Santa Barbara city limits noticed a 1992 Cadillac traveling at a high rate of speed and weaving through busy traffic lanes. A routine traffic stop ensued in which the driver provided identification indicating that he was operating the vehicle with no valid driver’s license.
Further investigation of the vehicle at the scene led deputies to discover that “the license plates on the vehicle were registered to a different car,” which undoubtedly led the deputies at the scene to a wide range of suspicions, and a search of the car which revealed “several boxes of candy, cash, personal checks…and identification badges for an organization called ‘Second Chance Youth Program’.”
At that point the driver—still operating under the false name he’d provided to the deputies—was arrested on the scene for falsifying or altering registration to pass as another vehicle, and for driving without a license. But when their suspect was booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on the vehicle code violations, “a fingerprint check” revealed him to be, in fact, Robert Lee Billie, the suspect long sought in the Carpinteria stabbing.
Billie was booked on an additional charge of attempted murder with his bail set at $1,000,000.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
Read more:
SoCal News Flash: San Diego man arrested for attempted murder
Noozhawk: Suspect in Carpinteria stabbing arrested after traffic stop
