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Joe Cool defendant wants to keep supposed statement out

By David Oscar Markus

Looks like the Joe Cool case is starting to heat up again...

At a status today, Judge Huck set a hearing on Guillermo Zarabozo's motion to exclude his supposed statement to a jailhouse snitch for next Wed. Here is the intro to Jay Weaver's article:

A Hialeah man charged with another man in the slayings last year of four Miami Beach charter boat crew members is trying to have his alleged ''confession'' to a jailhouse snitch tossed out before trial this summer.
Guillermo Zarabozo has asked a federal judge to suppress testimony by the government's jail ''informant,'' who claims Zarabozo confessed in custody that his co-defendant fatally shot the victims aboard the Joe Cool at sea last fall.
Zarabozo allegedly told the informant in the Federal Detention Center that Kirby Archer, a fugitive from Arkansas, used Zarabozo's gun to shoot the four after Archer argued with the boat captain about taking the vessel to Cuba.
A hearing on Zarabozo's new motion, filed by attorney William Matthewman, is set for Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Paul Huck.
The lawyer claims Zarabozo's right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment would be violated if the informant -- Antwan Hall, a felon serving 30 months for possession of a firearm -- is allowed to testify for the prosecution at trial on June 23.
''All that matters is whether the government informant deliberately used his position to secure incriminating information from . . . [Zarabozo] when counsel was not present,'' according to the motion.
Matthewman said Hall's cellmate, Daniel Noel, also convicted on firearm charges and serving 24 months, might be used as a witness to corroborate Hall's testimony.

Full post as published by Southern District of Florida on April 25, 2008 (boomark / email).