MIAMI (AP) — Jury selection will begin Monday in the U.S. federal trial of four men charged in the slayings of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages are charged with conspiring in South Florida to kidnap or kill Haiti’s former leader, plus related charges. They face possible life sentences. They all pleaded not guilty.Christian Sanon was scheduled to appear in court, but his lawyer confirmed Monday that Sanon’s case was separated from the others for medical reasons. A separate trial for Sanon is scheduled for a later date.
The trial of all five defendants was previously scheduled for last year, but U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra in Miami agreed to postpone the case due to discovery issues and the large amount of evidence.
Five others have already pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and are serving life sentences. A sixth person, who officials said was unaware of the murder plot, was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to providing body armor to the conspirators.
Moïse was killed on July 7, 2021, when about two dozen foreign mercenaries, mostly from Colombia, attacked his home near Port-au-Prince, officials said. Moïse’s wife, Martine, was injured in the attack and flown to the US for emergency treatment.
According to court documents, South Florida served as a central location for the planning and financing of the plot to oust Moïse and replace him with someone of the conspirators’ choosing.
Ortiz and Intriago were directors of Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy and Counter Terrorist Unit Security, collectively known as CTU, and Veintemilla was director of Worldwide Capital Lending Group. Both companies were based in South Florida.
Sanon is a Haitian-American citizen who investigators say was initially favored by the conspirators to replace Moïse. Solages was a CTU representative in Haiti who coordinated with Sanon and others, officials said.
The conspirators met in South Florida in April 2021 and agreed that once Sanon is in power, he would award contracts to CTU for infrastructure projects, security forces and military equipment, investigators said. Worldwide Capital agreed to help finance the coup by providing a $175,000 line of credit to CTU and sending money to co-conspirators in Haiti to buy ammunition, officials said.
CTU initially detained approximately 20 Colombian nationals with military training to provide security to Sanon. But in June 2021, the conspirators realized that Sanon had neither the constitutional qualifications nor enough popular support to become president. They supported then Wendelle Coq Thelota former judge of the Haitian Supreme Court. She died in January 2025 while still on the run.
In addition to the 11 people arrested and prosecuted in the US, another 20 people, including 17 Colombian soldiers and three Haitian officials, face charges in Haiti. gang violence, death threats and a crumbling justice system have stalled an ongoing investigation.
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