Sean Rossman

Democrat staff writer

Tallahassee city officials were blindsided Thursday morning when a sealed arrest document in the high-profile killing of Florida State University law professor Dan Markel was unexpectedly released.

The action to make public the probable cause affidavit of Sigfredo Garcia, the 34-year-old charged in Markel's killing, may alter the open murder investigation as it moves forward. It also raises speculation confirmed by Democrat sources, who said there has been ongoing friction between the State Attorney's Office and law enforcement regarding the handling of the Markel case.

Since Garcia's arrest, the document has been sealed because of the ongoing nature of the investigation. However, the affidavit, which provided never-before-seen details of the 2014 shooting, was released minutes before Garcia made his first appearance in a Leon County courtroom on Thursday.

The order to lift the seal was filed at 7:59 a.m. by Chief Circuit Judge Jonathan Sjostrom. Garcia appeared before a judge 36 minutes later. The order gave no details as to why the document was unsealed.

Before city officials knew it was released, news outlets quickly reported details in the report, including potential motives for the killing and the movements of the men suspected of shooting Markel.

City Manager Rick Fernandez said he was alerted the document was unsealed by reading Tallahassee Democrat news reports. He then called Tallahassee Police Department Chief Michael DeLeo, who by that time had been informed the document was available.

Fernandez said unsealing the arrest report didn't mesh with the "normal practice" of notifying the investigating law enforcement agency before documents are made public.

In a 10:45 a.m. email, Fernandez alerted the City Commission, Mayor Andrew Gillum and city leaders of what had happened.

"We don't know who requested this action, nor were we provided the opportunity to argue against the release of the records," wrote Fernandez.

Read the unsealed report of Sigfredo Garcia's arrest

The email obtained by the Democrat goes on to call the action "highly unusual on all fronts. We will keep you informed as we get more information."

DeLeo said he would have preferred the document remain confidential, adding the release of the information "may change timelines or the way we want to do things."

"The longer things are confidential, it makes our job a little easier as opposed to trying to track people down and them knowing what we're looking at specifically," DeLeo said.

Prius trailed Dan Markel on final morning

Both DeLeo and and Fernandez said they didn't know who asked to unseal the document. Chief Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman said she believed Sjostrom unsealed the documents "on his own motion."

When asked why he wasn't given notice that the document would be unsealed, DeLeo responded, "you're asking the wrong person that question."

Fernandez said he doesn't know of friction between TPD and the State Attorney's Office. He was told there was "nothing unusual" with the relationship. The State Attorney's Office chose not to comment.

“I think that anytime you’re discussing investigative strategies, there’s different ideas and different approaches and this -- like any other case -- there’s different opinions on how we should proceed," DeLeo said. "I don’t think that’s unique in this case. I think that this has maybe unfortunately become an unnecessary distraction to the real issue, which is professor Markel’s homicide and the impact it's had on his family and the community.”

Contact Sean Rossman atsrossman@tallahassee.com or follow@SeanRossman on Twitter. Karl Etters contributed to this report.