Killing in Nicaragua
Makes Spectacle of the
Courts
By Esteban
Felix/Associated Press
MANAGUA, Nicaragua —
Somebody raped and
strangled Doris Jiménez
in her tiny clothing
boutique 14 months ago.
Ever since, Nicaragua’s
justice system has found
itself on trial.
The case has become both
an international dispute
and a political
spectacle. And it has
proved not who killed
Ms. Jiménez, but that
justice here is a
nebulous concept,
subjective to the point
of abstraction.
Nicaragua’s president
has weighed in on the
Jiménez case, as has the
United States State
Department. Nicaragua’s
Supreme Court has become
enmeshed in it. And a
judge who ruled on it is
watching his back out of
fear that he might be
killed, too.
Last February, a
Nicaraguan judge
convicted Eric Volz, an
American who is now 28,
of killing Ms. Jiménez,
25, a Nicaraguan whom he
had dated on and off.
Mr. Volz, a native of
Nashville, who sold real
estate and ran a
magazine in Managua, the
capital, insisted he had
a solid alibi and bore
no grudge against her.
But after a three-day
trial, the judge, Ivette
Toruño, said she was
convinced that he and
another man were guilty.
Whether Mr. Volz really
was the culprit,
however, has never been
clear. He presented
evidence that he was in
Managua on Nov. 21,
2006, when someone
entered Ms. Jiménez’s
boutique near Rivas,
about 55 miles to the
south, and strangled
her. Friends and
acquaintances backed up
his account. So did
cellphone records that
traced his phone to the
capital around the time
Ms. Jiménez was believed
to have been killed and
computer records that
showed he was
communicating by instant
message around that
time.
None of that swayed the
judge, or the community.
Although no physical
evidence tied Mr. Volz
to the crime, one
witness did, a local
surfer, Nelson López.
Mr. López was initially
arrested in the case but
was later granted
immunity for his
testimony, pointing his
finger at the American.
And the local population
clearly viewed Mr. Volz
as the killer. When he
was being transferred to
the courthouse in Rivas
during the trial, the
police had to keep back
angry residents who
appeared ready to attack
him.
Mr. Volz received a
30-year sentence and
began serving it while
his lawyer challenged
the conviction. From his
cell, Mr. Volz told
whomever would listen
that the courts had the
wrong man. Back in the
United States, his
family and friends
started a campaign to
win his release, selling
“Free Eric Volz”
T-shirts, bracelets and
bumper stickers for a
legal defense fund and
setting up a Web site (www.friendsofericvolz.com)
to spread word of what
they called an unjust
conviction.
Then, on Dec. 17, an
appeals court in
Granada, a city
southeast of Managua,
ruled that Mr. Volz and
his supporters were
right.
Two members of a
three-judge panel
decided that he was
probably not the killer
and that local passions
probably had prompted
the conviction. They
ordered him released.
The third judge, Norman
Miranda, a member of the
ruling Sandinista Party,
found deficiencies in
the case that merited a
retrial but did not
order Mr. Volz freed.
All three judges agreed
that the Nicaraguan
co-defendant in the
case, Julio Martín
Chamorro, ought to
remain in jail.
Roberto Rodríguez, the
judge who wrote the
decision in Mr. Volz’s
favor, said in an
interview late last
month that he initially
presumed Mr. Volz to be
guilty. But after
reviewing the record of
the trial, he became
convinced that the
evidence indicated that
the young American could
not have been the
killer, he said.
His ruling was not
enough to get Mr. Volz
out of jail right away.
The trial judge, Ms.
Toruño, delayed
releasing him for days,
raising excuse after
excuse. Another judge,
Mr. Miranda, temporarily
lost Mr. Volz’s case
file. The State
Department called on
Nicaragua to follow its
own laws and release
him.
Meanwhile, prosecutors
appealed the release
order and sought to keep
Mr. Volz behind bars.
But Mr. Volz was somehow
released and left the
country, which shocked
Julio Centeno,
Nicaragua’s chief
prosecutor. “How he got
out, I don’t know,” Mr.
Centeno said in an
interview on Dec. 27,
four days after Mr. Volz
left.
Rushed through the
streets of Managua under
high security, Mr. Volz
entered the airport
through a private
entrance and hopped on a
private plane.
Government officials
stamped his passport and
ushered him out.
“We’re not celebrating,”
Mr. Volz said Friday in
a telephone interview.
“They continue to
persecute me.”
Mr. Rodríguez, the judge
who ruled in Mr. Volz’s
favor, said he knew that
his ruling would be
controversial. But even
he was surprised by the
uproar that followed.
Nicaraguans of all walks
of life condemned the
ruling, lashing out at
Mr. Rodríguez and his
colleague Alejandro
Estrada Sequeira. In
many Nicaraguans’ eyes,
a rich American had been
freed through his clout,
and a poor Nicaraguan
had been left behind to
suffer.
“This killer had the
money to pay the
judges,” said Sylvia
Sánchez, a friend of Ms.
Jiménez.
President Daniel Ortega,
who regularly criticizes
Washington, weighed in,
pointing out with scorn
that the two judges who
released the American
convict had been
appointed by parties who
oppose his governing
Sandinistas.
Mayra Sirias,
coordinator of
Nicaragua’s Network of
Women Against Violence,
called Mr. Volz’s
acquittal “the product
of a corrupt judicial
system that let a killer
and rapist go free.”
Mercedes Alvarado, the
victim’s mother, told
reporters that Mr.
Rodríguez ought to be
arrested and serve the
rest of Mr. Volz’s term.
Others called for him to
be thrown in the ocean.
Many questioned his
patriotism because he
carries dual Nicaraguan
and United States
citizenship.
“I’m going to fight for
my integrity,” vowed Mr.
Rodríguez, who
nonetheless said he was
afraid because of all
the threats against him.
“I want to be very
clear: I couldn’t live
with my conscience if I
kept someone in prison
for 30 years for
something I don’t think
he did.”
This case unlike any
other then attracted the
attention of the
nation’s highest court.
Ordering an
investigation into the
two judges who freed Mr.
Volz, two Sandinista
members of the Supreme
Court said they intended
to question everyone
involved to find out
whether any malfeasance
had occurred.
Mr. Volz, now in the
United States but still
lying low because he
fears for his life,
condemned the inquiry
into the judges who
freed him.
“It’s a continuation of
the same injustice,” he
said.
Mr. Volz contends that a
prominent Nicaraguan
family with ties to the
ruling party, whom he
declined to name, is
behind Ms. Jiménez’s
killing. He portrays all
the legal wrangling
since his departure as
part of a cover-up.
Those who are certain
that Mr. Volz killed Ms.
Jiménez and those
equally insistent that
he did not agree on one
thing: the case has laid
bare the deficiencies in
Nicaraguan justice.
Decisions are believed
to be bought and sold.
Politics infiltrates
judges’ chambers.
Confidence in the system
is as low as it can be.
“Our justice system had
a bad reputation
before,” said Jaime
Morales, the country’s
vice president, “and
this case didn’t help.”
|
|
|
|
|
Doris Jiménez, 25, was
raped and strangled in late 2006.
|
|
|
| |
|
