Murder of Jovenel Moïse: Trial of Five Accused Men Postponed Until 2026

Nearly four years after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, a federal judge in Miami has once again postponed the trial of five men accused of participating in the plot. The judge cited a massive volume of evidence not yet transmitted to the defense, while the security situation in Haiti complicates the investigation. The trial in Miami of five men accused of plotting the assassination of Haiti's president has been postponed again, this time until March 2026, nearly four years after the fatal shooting of Jovenel Moïse in his suburban home outside Port-au-Prince. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra stated at a recent hearing that she was not satisfied with the postponement of the federal trial, which was initially scheduled for March, then postponed to September of this year. Becerra said she had no choice but to push back the trial again due to the massive volume of evidence, including more than 2.5 million text messages, emails, and other documents, that federal prosecutors continue to provide to defense attorneys — a fundamental issue of discovery that has become a sore point for the judge. “I am by no means taking lightly the fact that this case has been delayed,” Becerra told the five defendants, who were arrested and placed in federal detention in the months following Moïse’s assassination on July 7, 2021. “This is not a delay that I am at all satisfied with.” Adding to the Miami trial's approach is a particularly delicate situation: armed gangs are terrorizing Haiti, a country in freefall without a legitimate political leader, making it dangerous for Miami defense attorneys to travel there and question former Colombian soldiers imprisoned in Port-au-Prince on Haitian charges of having aided in the president's assassination. Consequently, Judge Becerra granted the defense's request to collect video depositions from five of the Colombians, who represent about one-third of the imprisoned former commandos. “While the difficulties of traveling to Haiti for these depositions should not be underestimated, nothing seems to justify why these depositions cannot take place via videoconference,” Judge Becerra said after the May 19 hearing on the trial date and other matters. Despite the judge's approval of these crucial depositions, there is a potential Haitian witness whom Miami defense attorneys will not be able to question: former Haitian Superior Court Judge Windelle Coq Thélot, who died in January. Haitian authorities considered Thélot a key suspect in the investigation into Moïse's assassination. But she cast doubt on her alleged role in the assassination plot and on whether she had indeed promised immunity to the Miami defendants accused of orchestrating it. Wideberlin Sénexant
With Miami Herald