FBI Arrested Applebee’s Robbery Suspect Dies in Albany Jail Cell

FBI Arrested Applebee’s Robbery Suspect Dies in Albany Jail Cell

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Mustafa Spain, the 38-year-old man the FBI arrested on federal charges in the armed robbery of a Rensselaer Applebee’s, is dead — and the detention hearing he was scheduled to attend the very morning he died will never happen. According to Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple, a correction officer found Spain unresponsive in his cell at the Albany County Correctional Facility at around 12:18 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, CBS 6 Albany (WRGB) reported. An autopsy determined his death was a suicide by hanging.

Spain had been held at the facility as a federal detainee after the FBI took him into custody on Hobbs Act charges stemming from a reported armed robbery at the Applebee’s on North Greenbush Road in Rensselaer. WNYT reported that, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Spain entered the restaurant on or around Oct. 18 and went into the office of an employee who was closing for the night, pointed a gun at the victim, struck him with the gun, tied him up, and fled with $1,276 as alleged in the criminal complaint. East Greenbush Police and the New York State Police assisted in the robbery investigation, and the FBI announced the arrest earlier this week and took charge of the investigation on the night of Nov. 3.

Found slumped over, a bedsheet around his neck

According to WNYT, at 12:18 a.m. a correction officer discovered Spain slumped over in his cell with a bedsheet wrapped around his neck. Officers cut the bedsheet from his neck and began lifesaving measures, including CPR, and Colonie EMS personnel responded and continued efforts to revive him. Despite those efforts, Spain was pronounced dead.

According to both outlets, the New York State Attorney General’s Office was alerted to Spain’s death and joined sheriff’s investigators in responding, as is standard procedure for any in-custody death.

For the employee who was held at gunpoint and tied up during the Oct. 18 robbery, the case now ends not in a courtroom verdict but in a jail cell — Spain was due at a detention hearing on the morning of Nov. 4, hours after he was found dead.

Rensselaer Applebee’s armed robbery suspect dies in custody

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