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Injustice under law: the strange case of Eric Volz

by W. E. Gutman

“There are fewer than 10 slow faucets to provide water for over 2,500 inmates. No one gets good sleep. The noise is traumatic: five or more different kinds of music blare simultaneously; inmates scream in the middle of the night. The heat is intolerable. I fall asleep and wake up in pools of sweat.

“Food is scarce. The prison provides a cup of beans, a cup of rice, coffee, sometimes green bananas or a small bun. It’s not uncommon to find cockroaches and fingernails in the rice. Yesterday the doctor diagnosed me with gastritis and intestinal parasites.”

So writes Eric Volz from jail, a typical Central American hell-hole that makes US prisons look like resorts. From all accounts, his story is as chilling as it is mind-boggling.

Doris Jimenez, an attractive young woman was assassinated last November in San Juan del Sur, a popular tourist destination on Nicaragua’s Pacific coast. She was found at about 2 p.m. inside the clothing store she owned. She had been hog-tied, strangled and asphyxiated.

Volz, a 27-year old American publisher who has lived in Nicaragua for the past two years and had been romantically involved with Jimenez, was arrested and charged with homicide even though he was two hours away in Managua at the time of the murder, estimated to have taken place between 11:45 a.m. and 1p.m. Ten witnesses swore under oath that they had seen Volz at his Managua house, which also doubles as the offices of El Puente (The Bridge) --- a sustainable development and lifestyle magazine. None of the evidence recovered from the scene links Volz to the crime.

Volz had awakened early that morning and entered his office at around 9:15 a.m. The housekeeper, security guard and no fewer than five employees were at their post at the time and all saw Volz.

At about 10:30 a.m., Volz received two visitors. The meeting lasted until 11 a.m. Around noon, Volz met with Ricardo Castillo, a respected Nicaraguan journalist who has worked with the BBC and The Washington Post. The meeting between Volz and Castillo included a conference call with a US business contact in Atlanta, Georgia, Nick Purdy. The 54-minute call, which ended at 1:14 p.m., has been validated by phone records. Purdy also had digital time-stamped instant messages from Volz showing that the two men were talking business from approximately 9:21 a.m. until 2:07 p.m.

After the call with Purdy, Volz, Castillo and Adam Paredes (an EP employee) ate a curried fish and vegetable lunch prepared by the housekeeper. The lunch was witnessed by several EP colleagues. Castillo left the house around 2:00 p.m.

At 2:43 p.m. Volz, at home in Managua and in the company of five people, received a call informing him that Doris was dead. At about that same time, yet another witness arrived at Volz’s office and later testified that Volz was on the premises.

During Volz’s trial, the prosecution presented several witnesses. Only a few had any connection to the case. Medical examiners who reviewed evidence collected at the scene (hair, fluids, and blood) testified that none of their tests showed a link to Volz. A small amount of blood found on a sheet used to wrap the deceased was O type whereas Volz’s is A. More than 100 hair samples were collected at the scene, none belonging to Volz.

The prosecution also called Gabriela Vanessa Sobalvarro, a friend of the deceased, who testified that she called Volz on his cell phone informing him that Jimenez was dead. Cell site records confirm that Volz was in Managua when he received the call.

Finally, the prosecution called the only witness who could offer direct trial testimony against Volz --- Eric Lopez-Danglas, a suspect now turned government witness, who testified that he saw Volz leave the store on the afternoon of the murder. Danglas was visibly incoherent on the stand, and appeared to be under the influence of narcotics. He admitted being a drug addict.

During the court's preliminary sentence on February 16, 2007, the court barred US Embassy personnel from the courtroom. On February 21, 2007, when the court was to explain its ruling and sentencing, the judge was absent. Instead, a clerk read her decision.

Despite the absence of any incriminating evidence, although 10 people saw Eric in Managua when Jimenez was killed, notwithstanding that Lopez-Danglas is a known and self-confessed drug addict who testified in return for full immunity after having been initially charged with the crime, and despite the medical examiner's finding that Lopez-Danglas had scratches all over his body including his penis, Volz was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

“The Nicaraguan press has created an image of me as a privileged gringo from the elite who thought he was above the law,” Volz says in a recent letter to his parents. “Most of inmates have a very negative image of the United States and treat me as an enemy. The warden is worried for my safety.”

Apparently not worried enough to place Volz in protective custody.

Sixteen years spent covering Central America have convinced me that the legal system in the Isthmus is at best a travesty. Eric Volz’s fraudulent conviction is partly the result of anti-American zealotry and the court’s transparent surrender to mass hysteria. His imprisonment is a gross miscarriage of justice and an obscenity.

I appeal to readers to contact their elected representatives and help Volz gain swift release.

W. E. Gutman is a veteran journalist. He lives in southern California.

Jackson, Frankensteen's monsters
Bernal, Beating the truth into our heads
Silkwood, Condi Rice and Latin America
Gangadharan & Nagy, Ecuador's foreign policy
Racheotes, Open the US gates to immigrants
Araujo, Central America's gangs
Gutman, Eric Volz and Nicaraguan injustice
Garraway, The criminal threat to tourism

Pilgrim, The Caribbean garbage problem

Sirias, In this corner...