The Miami Herald reports that the Hialeah security guard on trial for murder in the Joe Cool case has been convicted, but not of murder. As some of our astute commenters pointed out, just bringing the gun on board doesn't necessarily mean he was responsible for the murders.
Now, I'm all for giving people the benefit of the doubt and I always suspect the government and police of overstepping their proper boundaries, but to me this guy seems totally involved.
An exhausted Miami federal jury Tuesday convicted the defendant in the Joe Cool murder trial of providing the gun used to kill four people -- but deadlocked on whether he took part in their kidnapping and murder.
Guillermo Zarabozo was just 19 years old when the older and slicker Kirby Archer enticed him with tall tales and elaborate schemes.
Defense attorneys made an impassioned case to jurors that Archer, ''a liar, manipulator and predator,'' had fooled the then-19-year-old Zarabozo into thinking he was a CIA operative.
It seems to me quite incredible that Zarabozo would not have known of Archer's criminal intent before getting on board the ill-fated Joe Cool. Apparently a number of the jurors agreed with that as evidenced by their deadlocked status on most of the counts.
Perhaps in this case justice is served in a roundabout way. If Zarabozo was duped by Archer, which seems to have been the case, a lighter sentence might do him some good. I certainly wouldn't like to see too much punishment meted out for stupidity and gullibility.
Stay tuned for the sentence.
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