The assassination plot of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, whose death in 2021 sparked unheard-of unrest in the Caribbean nation, was admitted to by a former confidential informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
The fourth defendant to enter a guilty plea in Miami is Joseph Vincent, a dual citizen of Haiti and the US who attended meetings in Haiti and South Florida before the killing. On allegations of conspiring to kill and abduct someone outside of the United States and conspiring to provide resources and material support, he could receive a maximum sentence of life in prison.
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Authorities estimate that roughly twenty nationals of Colombia and a few dual nationalities of Haiti and the United States were involved in the scheme. The president of Haiti was supposed to be kidnapped, but the conspirators ultimately decided to murder him. The plotters allegedly wanted contracts under Moïse’s successor, according to investigators.
During a 20-minute session before federal Judge José E. Martínez, Vincent entered a guilty plea while wearing jeans and a beige shirt typical of a prisoner. He sat with his lawyer, Kenneth Swartz, next to him, handcuffed and with shackles around his ankles.
When the judge asked Vincent how he would plead, he said, “Guilty, your honor.”
Vincent said that he and the prosecution had come to a plea deal, which is a common move made by defendants seeking a reduced sentence. He accepted the agreements, under which the government stated it would drop two charges of conspiring to commit crimes against the US in exchange for his cooperation with the investigation.
The sentence hearing was scheduled for February 9, 2024 by the court.
The other accused parties have entered pleas of guilty. These include retired Colombian army officer Germán Alejandro Rivera Garcia, who was given a life sentence in October; businessman Rodolphe Jaar, who is Haitian-Chilean and was also given a life sentence in June; and former senator John Joël Joseph, who was detained in Jamaica prior to being extradited to Miami last year and is scheduled to be sentenced on December 19.
All of them were involved in what US prosecutors have called a plot that originated in Haiti and Florida and culminated on July 7, 2021, when mercenaries shot Moïse dead at his private residence close to Port-Au-Prince. 53 was his age.
Prosecutors claim that Vincent had a strong relationship with two Haitian-American suspects: James Solages and Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a clergyman and resident of South Florida, whose desire to succeed Moïse as president drove him to take out his own assassination. Following Moïse’s 12-shot homecoming, both were among the first people to be taken into custody.
Vincent insisted on his innocence after the murder, telling a Haitian judge that he was a translator for the Colombian soldiers who were allegedly responsible for breaking into the president’s home and killing him.
In the Haitian case, over forty people have been taken into custody; the majority were apprehended soon after Moïse was shot dead in an incident that also left his wife, Martine Moïse, wounded. Several high-ranking Haitian police officers and eighteen former Colombian soldiers are among those held on suspicion of involvement in the plot.
Vincent insisted on his innocence after the murder, telling a Haitian judge that he was a translator for the Colombian soldiers who were allegedly responsible for breaking into the president’s home and killing him.
In the Haitian case, over forty people have been taken into custody; the majority were apprehended soon after Moïse was shot dead in an incident that also left his wife, Martine Moïse, wounded. Several high-ranking Haitian police officers and eighteen former Colombian soldiers are among those held on suspicion of involvement in the plot.
But the deployment is running behind schedule. Kenya has stated that further resources and training are needed for its soldiers, and a local high court has prolonged the injunction preventing the deployment. A hearing is set for late January. There is no declared date for deployment.
