Murder by the sea

Tony D’Souza: The whole center of the town was like, you know, the eye of a hurricane, quiet.  It was the height of drama.

From morning to night the drama of Eric Volz's three-day trial electrified this usually lazy provincial town in Nicaragua.

Writer Tony D’Souza recorded it all as it reached its climax and the mood on the street turned thick with menace.

Tony D’Souza: All around the courthouse, two block radius, there were riot police in armor with, you know, tear gas, guns and shields, clubs.

Then Eric arrived, in a flak jacket, surrounded by his own security force.

Keith Morrison: Better weapons than the Nicaraguan military had.
Tony D’Souza: Oh yeah. It all reinforced the idea that here was a rich, powerful gringo trying to buy his way out of justice.

And it made the angry mob see red.

Tony D’Souza: Doris’s mother would be out there shaking her fist. Whenever there was a break in the trial, she would run down the steps, past the riot police line, get right in front of the crowd, and raise her fist. And they would yell at the police, you know "You're whores of the gringo!  Let us through!  Process is corrupt!” And, you know, she whipped everyone up.
She whipped them up so much that police fired warning shots into the air.

They were clearly audible inside the tiny courtroom, where closing arguments were being heard and the judge was considering Eric's guilt or innocence.

But first -- some preliminary rulings.

Remember that perfect alibi? All those witnesses who said they saw Eric in Managua? The judge threw it all out.

Tony D’Souza: Did the ten people who were physically with him during the time of the crime all like him so much that they were all willing to lie for someone who killed his girlfriend?

The judge ruled in effect that they were lying to protect Eric. All of them -- including that pillar of the community Ricardo Castillo.

Castillo: In any other country, you would have cross examined, you know, the ten other people, and if all of them would have been lying, somebody would have cracked.  But they didn't do that.

It got worse for Eric. The judge also threw out Eric’s phone records.  They only proved calls were made, she said, not who made them.

She applied the same logic to the instant messages, and those cell phone tower records.
Those scratches on Eric’s shoulder and back?

Couldn't have been  caused by a casket, she decided.

Doris must have scratched him.

And Nelson Dangla, the witness who placed Eric at the crime scene?  The judge agreed that Dangla was an alcoholic, but she did not take him for a liar.

Tony D’Souza: Nelson Dangla, who, at one time was also accused, later became the principle witness for the prosecution. He's the only person who can put Eric Volz in San Juan at the time of the murder.

But that was enough. Enough  for the judge to convict Eric Volz of rape and murder of the beautiful Doris Jimenez.

Eric Volz: You know, the judge started reading her verdict, and I realized that she was charging me with murder, she had found me guilty.

At that very moment, Eric’s mom and stepdad were waiting by the phone. A video camera was shooting what they hoped would be a moment of elation.

Dane Anthony: We were just devastated. It was just the total antithesis of what we had been preparing ourselves for for weeks and weeks. 

Dane Anthony: I didn't know whether to pass out or throw up.  Or kick something. You know, just  was just overcome with the-- the absurdity of this.

How could he have been found guilty?

Tony D’Souza: It's absolutely opposed to the evidence.

Since the trial, Tony D’Souza has done his best to run down every testimony, every piece of evidence, any rumor and has come to one conclusion.

Tony D’Souza: Eric Volz could not have physically killed Doris Jimenez.

Simply could not have been there.  And yet?  Here he was in prison, sentenced to 30 years, as was his co-defendant, Chamorro.

He immediately launched an appeal which -- like him -- seemed to fall into a big black hole.
Eric was, quite simply, in hell.  And his chances of ever getting out seemed to wither by the day.

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