I-Team Extras: Dangerous Displays
Print
Oct 1, 2008 7:16 pm US/Eastern
Juror High Seas Murder Case Says Trial Was Tough
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
-
-
The Joe Cool, a Miami-based charter boat found adrift off the coast of Cuba in 2007.
Raul Garcia told
CBS4's Peter D'Oench that he and two women on the jury believed the story that Guillermo Zarabozo gave on the stand in the hijacking and murder case aboard the Joe Cool charter boat, off the Florida coast.
Zarabozo contends that he did not know of the plan to hijack the Joe Cool and take it to Cuba, and that he did not take part in the murders of four people, including the captain of the boat.
"He was guilty because he brought a gun onboard, but that's the only thing he did," said Garcia. "He didn't do any of the killing. I tried to work it out with the evidence, and I did not find anything to show me that he did the killing. I believed the only mistake he made is that he lied to the FBI."
Garcia says five days of deliberations became heated, with some jurors pounding their fists on a table and shouting.
"I've served on other juries before, and this was a tough one, a really tough one," said Garcia.
Garcia feels 20-year-old Zarabozo was responsible for the murders onboard the Joe Cool. That's why he voted to find Zarabozo guilty of causing four deaths through the use of the gun he brought on board the charter ship.
He's convinced that Archer planned and carried out the crime by himself.
Archer and Zarabozo hired the Joe Cool crew last year for a trip to Bimini, but Zarabozo testified he did not know of Archer's plan to hijack the boat to Cuba, and said he was in the bathroom when he heard the shots that took the four lives. The jury was deadlocked on whether Zarabozo was guilty of taking part in the murders.
The mass murder on the Joe Cool took the lives of Amie Gamble's brother Scott, half-brother Jake Branam, his wife Kelly, and a friend, Samuel Kairy.
"I don't know how the jury was torn," said Gamble. "I am shocked that they could not come to an agreement."
She strongly feels it took two men to commit this crime.
"I felt in my heart when I looked at this man, and watched him, that he showed no remorse," she said.
Gamble said she is haunted by this crime.
"I still can't believe it, I can't fathom what happened. This has been a nightmare; I've lost brothers who were good people. I miss them more than you'll know."
"As for Zarabozo, I want him to go to jail for the rest of his life. He is a murderer."
Gamble is hearing from federal prosecutors that Zarabozo could still face a stiff sentence, perhaps life in prison, even without a retrial on the other charges. She believes he deserves live behind bars. Prosecutors must decide if they'll retry the case on the 12 deadlocked counts or conspiracy, murder, and kidnapping.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Popular Pages on CBS4.com
