Daniel Lurvey, a Miami-Dade defense attorney, represented Sayoc in two theft cases in 2013 and 2014. He described Sayoc as a pretty normal guy who didn't seem the type to mail suspected pipe bombs.
“If I went down my list of clients and you said pick the Top 20 that you think might be capable of this, he wouldn’t even be close,” Lurvey told the Naples Daily News. “Something was going on, but if you sat with him and spoke with him you wouldn’t walk away thinking he was a violent guy or be concerned for your safety."
Fort Lauderdale-based attorney Daniel Aaronson said he represented Sayoc in several criminal cases, including one in which the defendant was accused of stealing a suit from a retail store and was charged with battery after being tackled by a store detective. Aaronson said he stammered audibly when he first learned Friday that Sayoc had been arrested and charged in the bomb investigation.
“I don’t believe I’ve ever represented anybody that was more respectful towards me and more polite than he was,” Aaronson said in a telephone interview. “It is so out of my belief that he could do something like this. It’s not one of these things where I would say to you, ‘I was waiting for something like this to happen.’ It’s the complete opposite. I would never think he would do violence to another person.”
