Apr 30, 2008 9:58 am US/Eastern
Jailhouse Snitch Won't Testify At "Joe Cool" Trial
Prosecutors Decide That Informant Won't Testify
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
A jail house snitch who claimed that one of the two men accused in the "Joe Cool " murders confessed to him what happened will not get a chance to tell his story to a jury.
After the defense filed a motion to have the 'confession' suppressed, prosecutors decided that their jail house informant would not take the stand.
In April, attorneys for Guillermo Zarabozo, 20, asked the judge to prevent jurors from hearing what he allegedly told the jail informant; that co-defendant Kirby Archer killed the boat's captain, Jake Branam, and crew because they refused to take the men to Cuba instead of the originally agreed-upon destination of Bimini, Bahamas. According to the court documents, Zarabozo said the pair wanted to reach Cuba because the Caribbean island doesn't grant extraditions to the United States. Zarabozo also supposedly said he threw the bodies into the ocean and cleaned up the boat.
Defense attorneys questioned whether the government intentionally assigned a known informant to the cell next to Zarabozo. If so, Zarabozo's attorneys argue, the jail house snitch was in reality an informant for the prosecution therefore it would violate their client's right to counsel if he's allowed to testify trial.
Zarabozo and Archer could face the death penalty if convicted of federal charges including murder, kidnapping and seizing control of a ship by force. They have pleaded not guilty and claim that Branam and his crew were killed by Cuban pirates who attacked the boat at sea.
Last October, U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta announced that Zarabozo and Archer were charged with the first-degree murder.
The murder charges were filed without bodies, guns, witnesses or confessions but prosecutors believe there is enough circumstantial evidence to prove that the crew of the 'Joe Cool' was killed at sea and their bodies dumped overboard by the two men.
The four disappeared at sea after Zarabozo and Archer paid $4-thousand to charter the "Joe Cool' to Bimini on September 22nd. The next day, the Coast Guard found the boat, abandoned and adrift 30 miles from Cuba.
The defendants were found in a life raft a few miles away. They claimed that pirate hijackers came aboard the 'Joe Cool' and killed the crew and threw their bodies overboard. They also claim a third boat picked up the hijackers who left the defendants in the life raft.
FBI investigators found four bullet casings on the boat from a 9mm Glock handgun. They also found receipts in Zarabozo's apartment for a Glock 9mm magazine and four boxes of 9mm bullets purchased from Lou's Gun Shop and Police Supply in Hialeah. The spent shell casings were the same size and brand purchased by Zarabozo.
Acosta said their story is full of inconsistencies and each suspect gave different accounts about events that unfolded on the boat including what the hijackers were wearing, where the murders took place and even how they survived.
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