SUNNY ISLES BEACH: Details emerge in hotel slaying
The man stabbed to death in Sunny Isles Beach was well-known in the controversial door-to-door selling market.
DAVID OVALLE, dovalle@MiamiHerald.com
May 20, 2008
Robert Spruiell, an Arizona businessman whose door-to-door magazine sales companies had drawn a flurry of bad publicity, was stabbed to death in Sunny Isles Beach when he confronted a man he believed was trying to sell drugs to his sales people, police said.
Spruiell, 38, a father of three, died Sunday morning at about 8 a.m. outside Room 205 of the Golden Nugget hotel.
His associate, Jeremy Johnson, 22, of Sioux Falls, S.D., was hospitalized after the fight.
The third man in the fight, Jesus Cisneros, 42, has cooperated with Miami-Dade homicide detectives. No arrests had been announced as of Monday evening.
For years, the subscription-sales industry has come under fire for questionable business practices and allegations of mistreatment of "agents" -- usually teenagers and young adults -- hired as independent contractors to travel the nation selling subscriptions.
But his supporters say Spruiell unfairly got lumped in with shadier elements of an oft-derided industry.
"He was adamantly opposed to drug use, personally and by people associated with his companies," said his Oklahoma-based attorney, Cynthia Becker. "He took a lot of pride in doing the right thing."
About two weeks ago, Spruiell and his sales crew checked into the Golden Nugget, 18555 Collins Ave., from which they would fan out to neighborhoods to hawk subscriptions.
On Sunday morning, he and Johnson confronted Cisneros, the man he suspected of peddling drugs, inside Room 205.
Cisneros told police he grabbed a knife to defend himself and stabbed both men. Mortally wounded, Spruiell staggered to the walkway outside, collapsed and died. Johnson was hospitalized.
A former U.S. Navy sailor who fought in the first Gulf War, Spruiell -- whose mother is Hawaiian -- also owned the only bar on the small island of Molokai.
His Hawaiian name was Kamuela Kamakana. Called the Paddler's Inn, the restaurant and bar employs 43 people on an island of 7,000.
"We don't make a lot of money, but we're just here for the community. He is going to be missed here," said restaurant administrator Alicia Montemayor.
A MIXED LEGACY
In the magazine subscription industry, Spruiell leaves a mixed legacy. He ran nearly a dozen companies in Arizona, which recruit young people with the promise of business experience and travel.
Brian Hooley, an employee at Prestige Sales in Phoenix, said of Spruiell, "He was one of the best people I've ever known."
At Prestige, $1,000 bonuses are paid for reaching certain goals. Another of his companies, Integrity Sales, shows a photo of teens on a white-water rafting trip in Colorado. Supporters say the experiences are fun and hone business savvy.
Critics say young people, many of them runaways, are paid little and forced to work under grueling conditions.
Better Business Bureaus have also taken exception to industry practices -- including salespeople claiming to be earning money for student trips or that magazines will be sent to troops overseas.
Spruiell's ex-wife, Karleen Hillery, and her former business associate, Jonathan Tork, have earned notoriety in the industry.
Seven young people from one of her companies, Youth Employment Services, were killed in a 1999 traffic wreck. She later settled a multimillion dollar suit with the state.
Spruiell met, married and divorced her after the accident.
The wreck, however, spurred outrage. Phil Ellenbecker, whose teenage daughter Malinda Turvey was a sales agent and died that day, has run a website for nine years dedicated to exposing the industry.
"They're pulling in inner-city kids from broken homes, and a lot of these kids are innocent," Ellenbecker said. "They have no idea what they're getting into."
Spruiell's supporters say he had worked to distance the companies from his ex-wife and Tork, who was once fined $50,000 by the federal government for giving out fake subscription receipts.
'WORKED EVERY DAY'
Ellen Buckley, director of the National Field Selling Association, said, "He worked every day of his life. He would never allow anything bad to happen to his agents."
Still, negative press followed Spruiell.
In December, two subscription sellers associated with Integrity Program LLC -- Travis Rowley, 23, and Michael Lee, 21 -- were charged with murdering an elderly couple in Albuquerque, N.M. The husband was bludgeoned to death, his wife raped and suffocated.
A few weeks later, detectives in Claremont, Calif., arrested another company contractor, Corey Finley, 21, for allegedly raping a woman.
Spruiell took pains to conduct background searches, his friends said.
Still, spurred by the deaths, the city of Albuquerque sued Spruiell's company for operating without proper permits. Spruiell was not in New Mexico when the contractors were arrested.
"Brutal murders -- a very ugly situation," said Assistant City Attorney Peter Pierotti, who had just questioned Spruiell in a deposition three weeks ago.
Kate Gardiner of The Molokai Times contributed to this report.
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HAWAII: Salesman's death in Miami felt in Hawaii
The death of salesman Robert Spruiell in Miami-Dade has sent shock waves on a rural Hawaiian island going through tough economic times.
DAVID OVALLE, dovalle@MiamiHerald.com
Miami Herald/ 6/8/08
In the coming weeks, Robert Spruiell's family will spread his ashes on a nine-acre piece of earth where he hoped to retire. The land sits atop a hill, its back to the Kamalo mountains, the rest a stunning view of four Hawaiian islands.
This is Molokai.
Spruiell traced his heritage to this 260-square-mile island of only 7,500 people, mostly native Hawaiians, who pride themselves on living more like their ancestors than the over-Americanized isles.
Along the way, he bought the Paddlers Inn Restaurant and Bar, a vital employer and the island's sole night spot.
But a trip to South Florida marred his quest to reconnect with his Hawaiian roots.
Spruiell, the owner of various door-to-door magazine subscription sales companies in Arizona, was killed May 18 at the Golden Nugget Hotel, 18555 Collins Ave.
He and another employee, Jeremy Johnson, 22, had gone to confront a guest who they believed had been selling drugs to their salespeople staying in the hotel.
DEATH IN MIAMI
In the confrontation, Jesus Cisneros, 42, stabbed Spruiell to death and slashed Johnson about seven times.
Because Spruiell and Johnson committed kidnapping and occupied burglary by breaking into Cisneros' room, police say, Johnson is being held responsible for the death.
He is charged with second-degree felony murder. His arraignment in Miami-Dade Circuit Court is Tuesday. He had pleaded not guilty.
Spruiell's story, by all accounts, spanned the globe.
His father, a U.S. Navy seaman, met his wife while stationed on the islands. She hailed from the large and well-known Kamakana clan of Molokai. Her father, Henry Kamakana Sr., was a renowned pro tennis player.
Spruiell grew up in Washington state and spent summers in Hawaii.
"As he grew up, Hawaiian family was around all the time. He had a lot of respect for the Hawaiian culture," said his father, Bob Spruiell Sr.
Spruiell also served in the U.S. Navy during the first Gulf War. An Arizona resident, he later owned a series of door-to-door sales companies, traveling the country overseeing young people selling magazine subscriptions.
While the industry brought bad publicity -- his company was sued this year by Albuquerque, N.M., after two associated salespeople were charged with murder -- he found refuge in Hawaii.
Four years ago, Spruiell returned to Hawaii to visit family. As he hit middle age, his interest in his island roots grew, said his 54-year-old uncle, Pete Gonsalves.
Gonsalves decribed island life and its people this way: "The ocean is the ice box, the mountain is where they get substance from deer and pig. Molokai is a self-sustaining place and that's why a lot of people are able to get by."
Though much of his family lived in Oahu, Spruiell visited Molokai to visit remaining members and fell for the island's traditional style.
After just one day, he bought the land where he hoped to build his retirement home. He also hoped to bring his Molokai-native mother, Haunani Kamakana, to live with him there.
"He wanted to give back to his Hawaiian heritage, be part of the community," Gonsalves said.
Molokai is a unique place.
The fish-shaped island, smack center in the island chain, boasts spectacular sea cliffs, lush rain forests and a twin-tiered waterfall called Moaula Falls.
It was also home to Kalaupapa, a historic former colony for people suffering from leprosy, or Hansens' disease.
Molokai is sparesly populated. Known as "the most Hawaiian island," Molokai does not draw the honeymooners and vacationers like the islands of Oahu and Maui.
"The people here don't want to be like the rest of the islands. We've been fighting development for 30 years," said well-known Molokai activist Walter Ritte. "All the islands have been developed to a high extent. This is the only island that hasn't been developed. It's really rural -- that is by design."
But these days, the island has been in tumult.
The Molokai Ranch, which owns 66,000 acres, or a third of the island, was thwarted in an attempt to build luxury homes. So it closed its cattle and resort businesses, including a lodge, bungalows, a golf course and a movie theater.
More than 100 workers lost their jobs. Last week, the ranch sounded alarms by announcing it would stop water and sewer services, affecting some 1,200 customers.
HAWAIIAN PLANS
With this troubled atmosphere as a backdrop, Spruiell -- whose Hawaiian name is Kamuela Kamakana -- had hoped to make a difference last October with the purchase of the Paddlers.
A novice in the restaurant business, he had revamped the kitchen, upgraded the sound system, and added live concerts and poker and movie nights.
"We don't make a lot of money, but we're just here for the community. He is going to be missed here," restaurant administrator Alicia Montemayor said after his death.
Molokai Ranch closed, the Paddlers is now the only place to serve a social hub after hours. It also employs 43 people, not an insignificant number on an island where the unemployment is now hovering about 10 percent.
"Every little thing now becomes a big thing. Every job counts. Not only that, it's a good place for people to let out their frustrations, to eat and to have a good time. Somewhere to go in the evening," said activist Ritte.
For now, Paddlers will continue to operate as usual, his family said.
The Paddlers website, in his honor, put up a slide show of photos taken during Spruiell's April visit.
By month's end, family members will take a ferry to Molokai, to his property in the Kamalo mountains, to spread his ashes.
Later, Gonsalves and a friend, Kanalu Young, a professor at the University of Hawaii, will compose prayers and bless the land.
And in the coming weeks, a probate court in Arizona, where Spruiell lived, will look at his properties and businesses to figure out how they will be distributed among his heirs. After that, no one is quite sure what will happen to the Paddlers.
"The family wants the restaurant to succeed," Bob Spruiell Sr. said.
Kate Gardiner of The Molokai Times contributed to this report.
