Overview:
A U.S. federal trial prosecuting suspects in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse nears its conclusion this week. However, weeks of extensive testimony and evidence have only exposed more competing narratives and gaps in accountability and persistent uncertainty about the masterminds behind the crime.
MIAMI — Closing arguments in the Jovenel Moïse assassination trial in Miami federal court are scheduled for May 4 and 5. Yet, for many who hoped the United States proceedings would deliver clear answers, the multitude of testimony and evidence presented is instead underscoring how much remains unknown. Specifically, who ordered the murder and why remain key missing pieces of a complicated puzzle.
Since the trial began in March, prosecutors and defense attorneys have presented sharply different narratives. But neither came close to identifying the mastermind, or saying if there is one, behind the July 7, 2021 brutal killing. A crime so jolting, it deepened Haiti’s political collapse and accelerated its gang-fueled insecurity and humanitarian crises.
One reason may be that parts of the case were handled under the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA). The law restricts the public’s access to potentially “sensitive details.” Another possibility is that several plea agreements and closed-door processes limit what the attorneys could reference in open court. Yet a third reason may be the lack of cooperation between Haiti and U.S. investigators and attorneys, which has left key witnesses in Haiti off the stand in Miami.
“There were a lot of witnesses that were outside of our control and not present, but within the government’s control, specifically the Haitian national police officers,” one of the defense lawyers told the court on April 28.
Such constraints have fueled frustration among many Haitians and political observers seeking transparency and accountability.
Critics argue the proceedings focus too heavily on those who carried out the killing and financiers of the crime, while leaving broader political questions unresolved. In many ways, the U.S. justice system, even while deploying resources in multiple countries, risks convicting the suspects without giving the public a clear motive or source of the commands.
“The proceedings in federal court in Miami fall far short of the Haitian people’s expectations,” said Patrick Moussignac, CEO of Radio Télé Caraïbes (RTVC) and an emblematic figure of Haitian media.
“Too many closed doors,” Moussignac wrote on Facebook. “This opacity is not just a perception; it is embedded in U.S. procedures through the Classified Information Procedures Act, which allows sensitive information to be withheld, including potential links between certain suspects and U.S. intelligence agencies.”
A trial rich in details, poor in conclusions
At trial for conspiring to kidnap or kill the president are four South Florida-based suspects: the owners of Counter Terrorist Federal Academy and Counter Terrorist Unit Security (CTU) — a Colombian national named Arcángel Pretel Ortiz and an American-Venezuelan named Antonio “Tony” Intriago; James Solages, a CTU employee who is Haitian American; and Broward County mortgage broker Walter Veintemilla. Dr. Christian Emmanuel Sanon, another Haitian American who was initially supposed to be tried with them, had his case postponed because of an undisclosed illness.
Are these five men primarily responsible for the crime?
Intriago, Ortiz and Solages are among 13 people charged by federal prosecutors in connection with the murder. The CTU group, Sanon and Veintemilla are accused of financing the plot through Worldwide Capital Lending Group, a mortgage firm based in Miramar, Fla.
“They wanted to seize power and get rich.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean McLaughlin
Eight participants have taken plea deals, including five now serving life sentences. Namely, Haitian-Chilean businessman Rodolphe Jaar, ex-Haitian Senator John Joël Joseph, retired Colombian army officer Germán Alejandro Rivera García, Haitian American and former DEA informant Joseph Vincent and former Colombian soldier Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios. One American, Frederick Bergmann of Tampa, received nine years for illegally exporting tactical gear to Haiti.
As the spotlight turned to the four South Florida residents over the past eight weeks, jurors heard from dozens of witnesses, including Moïse’s widow, financial analysts, cooperating defendants and forensic experts. Prosecutors laid out an orchestrated conspiracy that evolved from a plan to kidnap Moïse into a plot to kill him. They traced roughly $343,000 used to finance the plot through loans, wire transfers and even U.S. pandemic relief funds, according to Nestor Mascarell, a 20-year forensic accountant veteran at the FBI.
According to testimony, the suspects sought political and financial gain, including lucrative contracts under a new government.
“They wanted to seize power and get rich,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean McLaughlin told the jury on the trial’s opening day, emphasizing that the case against the defendants wasn’t complicated.
“So arrogant and confident in themselves, the evidence will show, and thinking so little of the Republic of Haiti and its people, they actually thought they could pull it off,” McLaughlin said.
The defense cast doubt on that narrative, arguing that the operation was chaotic, underfunded and repeatedly changed direction. Defense attorneys say their clients believed they were supporting a lawful arrest, not an assassination, and insist the killing may have been carried out by actors outside the alleged conspiracy.
The result is a case filled with evidence, yet lacking a definitive explanation of who ultimately gave the order to kill the president — and why.
Competing theories bring more questions
The trial has surfaced several possible scenarios, none fully conclusive:
Failed political coup turned deadly
Prosecutors maintain that the plot initially aimed to remove Moïse and install a replacement. First, Sanon, a Haitian American pastor and physician. Then, Windelle Coq Thélot — who has since died after fleeing from authorities. As plans faltered, prosecutors argue, the conspiracy escalated into assassination.
A hijacked operation
Defense lawyers claim the original plan was overtaken by other actors in Haiti. They said Moïse had been killed before the Colombian commandos, hired as part of the operation by CTU, entered his residence on the hills of Pèlerin, a wealthy suburb in southeast Port-au-Prince.
They have maintained that Moïse was killed by his own presidential guards and that the 26 mercenaries, along with Solages and Vincent, were accompanying Haitian police to execute a “lawful warrant.”
Central to the defense strategy is the argument that the defendants never intended to kill Moïse, who was tortured and murdered. They just wanted to remove him from power, according to CTU’s lawyer, José Antonio Corrales. To that end, Corrales claimed the defendants had the approval of Haiti’s government to arrest their president, citing a Haitian judge’s warrant, signed in early 2021.
Judge Jean Roger Noelcius, a Haitian investigative judge who signed the document, testified via video shown to the 12-member jury that the document was illegal because he lacked authority to remove a sitting head of state.
The defendants also claimed they had the backing of the U.S. government to remove Moïse from office. Prosecutors sharply rebuked the defense’s arguments, flatly denying the U.S. government backed the plot.
Complicity within the president’s security detail
Testimony pointed to alleged bribes paid to members of the president’s security detail. Some witnesses suggested guards were paid to stand down, while others raised questions about why the number of security staff seemed minimal during the attack.
A broader political conspiracy
A who’s-who list of Haitian political figures and former high-ranking government officials has surfaced throughout the proceedings, including Haiti’s former President Michel Joseph Martelly and Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Both now live in the U.S. Neither has been charged or called to testify in the Miami trial.In Haiti, where no trial has taken place to date, nearly 50 other individuals have been indicted in the case, including 18 Colombian ex-soldiers, the slain president’s widow, Martine Moïse, and some of Moïse’s own allies— notably ex-Prime Minister Claude Joseph and Rénald Lubérice, who served as secretary general of Haiti’s Council of Ministers. Neither Martelly nor Henry is on this list of indicted individuals.
Public skepticism grows amid absence of closure
Despite the breadth of evidence, critical gaps remain. Orlando do Campo, who represents Ortiz, described the investigation as a “mess” and argues that defendants were manipulated into taking the blame for an internal coup.
“We walked into a fairly impossible situation,” the defense lawyer said as prosecutors challenged a last-minute request for expert testimony. “Once you get off on the wrong foot, everything that comes after is hard to trust.”
Several key suspects in Haiti, including members of Haiti’s oligarchy, former government officials and security figures, were not called to testify. Some, including Dimitri Hérard, then the security unit chief at the National Palace, escaped custody during a 2024 prison break. Others were never transferred to the United States despite requests.
The court also limited evidence tied to Haiti’s parallel investigation. The defense argued that they’ve been unable to travel to Haiti, and U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra has imposed limits on evidence from the investigation there.
Also, because the case centers on an alleged violation of the U.S. Neutrality Act and one of the defendants served as an FBI informant, some of the evidence has remained confidential.
Marissel Descalzo, who is defending Veintemilla, also noted that the defense wanted to call ex-Haiti National Police chief Léon Charles and Joseph Félix Badio, a jailed former government official, as witnesses.
“There’s insufficient evidence that’s been presented,” she said.
Badio, whose alleged participation in the plot elevated it from a kidnapping to an assassination, has figured prominently in both the government and defense arguments
“The Haitian government has been requesting that the U.S. take Badio for months, if not years, and the U.S. has refused to bring him over here,” Descalzo said. “Badio is material to our defense, and he was not accessible to us.”
Does that alleged involvement make Badio the mastermind? Still, the response remains unclear.
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