Murder by the sea

In Nicaragua, public rage was growing over the murder of Doris Jimenez.

It was directed at the young American, Eric Volz. And it wasn’t hard to see why.

Headlines in a leading tabloid almost shouted the accusation that Volz had brutally raped and murdered his ex-girlfriend, Doris.

This, as American writer Tony D’Sousa was getting his teeth into the story for “Outside” magazine.

Tony D'Souza: The vast majority of people, local and expat, were sure he was guilty. 

And, perhaps, guilty enough to try to influence Doris’s mom Mercedes.

Keith Morrison, Dateline correspondent: There was a story that she was offered a million dollars to make the case go away.

D'Souza: That is one that has a lot of legs to it.

Morrison: Somebody did offer her that kind of money?

D'Souza: Something happened.  I don’t think it was Eric’s—family, anyone on Eric’s legal side.

Doris’s mother denies receiving money from anybody, but she ensured that the story of an attempted bribe went very public.

D'Souza: It’s a major part of how public sentiment was turned against Eric trying to buy his way out of a crime in Nicaragua.

And when Eric began to appear in court to face rape and murder charges, Doris’s mother Mercedes was ready - she’d assembled a huge crowd outside the court house. At a pre-trial hearing in December, says Tony D’Sousa, the crowd became a mob.

Morrison: There were people, though, with machetes, guns, clubs?

D'Souza: What I’m sure of is that it was a big, angry mob, and that some people in that mob would have killed Eric Volz if they’d had a chance to get their hands on him.

Morrison: Could you hear them?

Volz: Sure.

Morrison: Yelling?  Yelling what?

Volz: “Bring out the gringo, because we’re gonna kill him.” It was an angry mob of people that weren’t interested in justice, but revenge.

After his hearing, Eric, in his prison issue garb, was led from the courthouse and into the mouth of the mob.

Volz: What happened after that was you know, me running for my life… from hundreds of people.

Morrison: They were chasing you?

Volz: Yeah, oh yeah. I was handcuffed—no shoe laces, and my pants were falling down, because the jeans they brought me were too big.

U.S. Consul General Marc Meznar says a embassy officer was also caught up.

U.S. Consul General Marc Meznar: One of the embassy officers that was with him was also attacked by the mob.  I mean, they had to run for their lives.

Even so, Eric managed to escape.  He took refuge in a nearby gymnasium.

Volz: I found some rope in the office and tied my shoes up.  There was a soft measuring tape and I cut it with a fork and made a belt. I wet my hand with saliva and actually tore the handcuff off my left-hand and you know, took some flesh with it.

Morrison: What were you thinking?

Volz: It was an adrenaline-filled near-death experience. 

Eventually Eric found some police who took him back to prison.

He had barely escaped street justice, so it seemed a wise choice to opt for a single judge only — and no jury.

And just this past February, Eric was put on trial, along with Julio Chamorro, one of the others arrested after Doris’s murder.

Local prosecutor Isolda Ibarra charged that Eric murdered Doris — most likely in a fit of jealous rage — after discovering she was dating another man.

It was an opinion supported by Doris’s mother Mercedes.

Mercedes Alvarado: Doris told me that she was scared that his jealousy would drive him to kill her.

The prosecutor called upon Doris’s friends and relatives, like her cousin Ada, who claimed that Eric was so controlling, Doris found herself trying to escape.

Ada also believed the mystery intruder Doris had worried about was a jealous Eric, checking up on Doris.

Ada said she last saw Doris at 9 a.m. on the day she was murdered. Doris was leaving for work.

Ada Alvarado, cousin: She got dressed and she came in to the room, kissed the baby and said, “I’ll see you later”.

Four hours later, Doris was dead and it wasn’t long before Eric was fingered as a suspect by the prosecutor.

Isolda Ibarra, prosecutor (translated): We have testimony that places him directly at the scene when the crime was committed. 

Investigators determined that Doris was murdered in broad daylight, on the 21^st of November, just after midday - around 12:30 p.m.

And the prosecutor’s prime witness testified in court that he saw Eric, right then, near Doris’s store.

Tony D'Souza, writer: He says that at 10 a.m., Eric showed up in a low, white car…

And that Eric paid him to carry two bags of clothes to the car.

D'Souza: And then Eric got in the car and they drove away in the direction of Managua.

Then the prosecutor presented strong physical evidence—incriminating stuff.

There were photos showing scratches on Eric’s back, caused, said the prosecutor, by Doris’s fingernails in a desperate fight for her life.

Prosecutor: Forensic tests show they corresponded to self-defense injuries that the victim made against him.

And that wasn’t all.

Prosecutor: The forensic doctor took a sample from under Eric’s nails and found blood there.

Must have been Doris’s blood, she said.

And in trying to avoid punishment for his crime, said the prosecutor, Eric spun the lie that he had ordered a rental car after hearing that Doris was dead, but was caught by a different time line given by the rental car company, whose employees said he’d called much earlier, saying someone had died.

Ibarra: He called around 1:00 to 1:30 P.M. to rent the car and according to his testimony, he found out about his girlfriends death at 2:45 P.M. 

And what’s more, she alleged, Eric did not take delivery of the rental car himself. Someone else signed for it, she said.  But then later, she said, Eric tried to persuade employees of the rental car company to cover for him.

Ibarra: They were asked by Erick Volz employees to write a document stating that they had personally delivered the car and that they had seen Eric Volz in Managua the day Doris was killed.

Eric Volz, she concluded, was caught in his own lies.

There was physical evidence, circumstantial evidence... and critical eye-witness testimony placing Eric at the scene of the crime.

All of that taken together appeared to give the prosecutor an iron clad case.

Eric Volz, she concluded, brutally murdered his ex girlfriend Doris Jimenez in fit of jealous rage.

There is no death penalty in Nicaragua, so the prosecutor asked for the maximum: 30 years in prison.

But now, it was time to hear Eric’s side of the story. 

Finally, all those vicious accusations, those prosecution claims, would be put to rest.  Eric’s defense attorney was reputed to be one of the best in the land.  And the ammunition he had to work with was unassailable, unbeatable.

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