Local News

MIAMI (CBS) ― Closing arguments got underway Tuesday in the trial of one of the men accused in the kidnapping and murder of a Miami charter boat's captain and crew.

During her closing, prosecutor Karen Gilbert urged the jury to convict Guillermo Zarabozo, 20, in the kidnapping and murder of the captain and crew of the Miami charter boat Joe Cool. Gilbert said Zarabozo was a willing participant in the murders along with Kirby Archer, 36, who has already pleaded guilty.

Taking the stand in his own defense on Monday, Zarabozo testified that he was an unwitting participant in the crime. Zarabozo claimed he was in the boat's bathroom when he heard shots and commotion. When he came out, he saw Archer holding Zarabozo's gun.

Zarabozo said Kirby ordered him at gunpoint to help throw the "Joe Cool" crew members' bodies overboard and clean up the blood.

It was the first time Zarabozo told his side of the story about what happened on board the boat one year ago. It was a somber anniversary for family and friends of the murdered crew, who sat in court listening to him proclaim his innocence.

"To sit in the same room with him, knowing that him and Archer were the last two people to see my brother alive is very, very difficult," explained Amie Gamble whose brother Scott was one of the crew members on the boat.

Zarabozo, now clean-shaven and in a pinstriped suit, exuded an air of self-assurance. His testimony often contradicted prior statements he made to the FBI about the fateful voyage. At one point, he told the jury, "For the past year, I've tried to erase it out of my mind."

Zarabozo said he was in the boat's bathroom when he heard shots and came out to find all four crew members had been killed by Archer. He insisted he only helped throw the bodies overboard because he was scared that Archer would kill him.

Prosecutors say Zarabozo's memory is selective and family members of those died agreed.

"Very tough. You had four friends who are no longer here and you had to sit there and listen to a man tell blatant lies," Amie Gamble explained.

Diana Alvarez described Zarabozo's testimony as, "Cocky, can I say that? Comes across very arrogant towards the prosecution, almost like he could care less."

Prosecutors wrapped up their case against Zarabozo Friday. He faces life in prison if convicted of four counts of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and robbery.

Archer, a robbery fugitive from Arkansas, previously pleaded guilty to the killings of the "Joe Cool' crew and also faces life in prison.

On the stand last week, FBI Special Agent David Nuñez said Zarabozo originally told him that the "Joe Cool" was attacked by gunmen who allegedly killed the crew but left him and Archer alive. Zarabozo reportedly said under federal questioning that he was ordered by the gunmen to throw the bodies overboard; in doing so he noticed that the captain, Jake Branam, was still alive.

Nuñez testified when he originally questioned Archer, he told a tale of gunmen but it was Branam's wife, Kelly, who was still alive when she was thrown overboard.

The two men later admitted that they were ones who killed the Branams along with crew members Gamble and Samuel Kairy.

Archer accepted a plea deal from prosecutors in July and admitted to participating in the murders of the Joe Cool crew. He said he shot and killed the Branams, but it was Zarabozo who killed Gamble and Kairy. In exchange for his guilty plea, he will not face the death penalty. Archer will be sentenced October 2nd.

Zarabozo's defense attorneys, Anthony Natale and Michael Caruso, maintain their client was a victim of Archer who they describe as master manipulator who solely planned to hijack the boat.

"He was just as much a hijacking victim," Natale said of Zarabozo in his opening statement. "This is a case about how a cunning and devious man was able to quickly kill four people. That man was Kirby Archer."

Natale said Zarabozo didn't know that Archer planned to seize the boat and head for Cuba when they chartered it on September 22nd, 2007. According to Natale, Zarabozo thought they were going to Bimini to take a security job Archer claimed to have with a CIA connection.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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