Christian Emmanuel Sanon, the Haitian American pastor who hired former Colombian soldiers to protect him in Haiti while he aspired to replace President Jovenel Moïse, is now being charged with conspiring to kidnap and assassinate Haiti’s leader, according to a revised indictment filed Wednesday in Miami federal court.
Sanon, 65, was previously charged a year ago with conspiring to smuggle bullet-proof vests to Haiti for the Colombians, a violation of U.S. export laws, and plotting a “military expedition against a friendly nation,” a violation of the U.S. Neutrality Act.
But the amended indictment filed by federal prosecutors in Miami places Sanon in the deadly plot that led to Moïse’s middle-of-the-night assassination on July 7, 2021. The addition of the more serious charges against Sanon represents a significant development because both federal prosecutors and FBI agents had said in court hearings and documents that Sanon was aware of the plot to arrest and overthrow Haiti’s president but unaware of the final decision by others to kill him.
Sanon had been in the running to be president during a botched June 14, 2021, attempt at the Port-au-Prince international airport to arrest Moïse upon his return from a trip to Turkey. Days after the assassination, he was arrested by Haitian authorities at his home in Port-au-Prince.
Until this week, U.S. investigators had given considerable weight to evidence that suggested the plotters had abandoned Sanon as Moïse’s successor after the airport saga, in favor of Haitian Supreme Court Justice Windelle Coq Thélot. Thélot has not been charged by U.S. authorities but she is wanted in Haiti, where she remains a fugitive after nearly three years.
Since Sanon’s extradition from Haiti early last year, six other defendants in the case have pleaded guilty and have been cooperating with federal authorities, including providing evidence about Sanon’s role in the plot that was coordinated in South Florida, Haiti and Colombia. FBI agents and prosecutors have also had ample time to review cellphone records, emails and text messages that align with the testimony of cooperating witnesses.
Sanon’s defense attorney, Zeljka Bozanic, could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday. But in an interview last week, she said Sanon had hoped to replace Haiti’s president and was not aware or part of any conspiracy to kill him.
“It is clear he was not the mastermind,” Bozanic told the Miami Herald.
The substantial revision in the U.S. case follows an investigative report published by the Herald last week that revealed that investigators in Haiti view Sanon as one of the “authors” of the assault on the president’s home in the hills above Port-au-Prince.
Haiti investigative judge Walther Wesser Voltaire is expected to formally issue charges in the case soon. More than 40 people have been jailed in Port-au-Prince for the president’s murder, including former Colombian soldiers and members of Moïse’s presidential security detail. However, no one has been formally charged.
Of the original 11 defendants charged in the U.S. case in Miami, five have pleaded guilty to conspiring to kidnap and kill Moïse and two related counts involving providing “material support” in the violent coup. Those offenses carry potential sentences of life in prison.
A sixth defendant has pleaded guilty to conspiring with Sanon and the others in backing the military expedition against Haiti and conspiring with Sanon in exporting the bullet-proof vests to the contingent of 22 Colombians, most of them once members of elite military units. The former soldiers were allegedly hired by a Miami-area security company to carry out the slaying of Moïse. Those two offenses carry up to 10 years in prison.
Sanon, who has pleaded not guilty to the original charges against him, was looking at the possibility of up to 10 years in prison. But the new charge of conspiring to kill Moïse carries a possible life sentence.
A physician and pastor who split his time between Port-au-Prince and South Florida, Sanon participated in several meetings before the attack. He was sometimes referred to as “President” as he conducted meetings at the Tower Club in downtown Fort Lauderdale and at a rented house in Port-au-Prince in the spring of 2021 before the brazen attack. In South Florida, he spoke about an ambitious redevelopment program to “save Haiti,” while in Haiti he projected himself as Moïse’s successor.
James Solages, a co-conspirator who was extradited from Haiti to South Florida, told Haitian authorities that in March 2021 Sanon called asking for his help and promised him a payment of $80,000, allegedly to serve as an interpreter for the Colombians who were hired to protect him. Solages testified that Sanon informed him that he had been chosen by the U.S. State Department to lead a presidential transition in Haiti — a claim that was untrue.
The next month on April 4, Joseph Joël John, a former senator who has pleaded guilty in the U.S. case, traveled to South Florida from Haiti. He met with Solages and Sanon as well as several other co-conspirators, the U.S. government says. The others included Walter Veintemilla, a Weston financier who provided a $175,000 loan to Counter Terrorist Unit Security for Sanon’s protection; the firm’s owner, Antonio “Tony” Intriago, and Arcángel Pretel Ortiz.
Pretel ran Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy LLC, an affiliate of CTU Security. At the time of the plot, he was an FBI informant but the agency has said it had no knowledge of his involvement. While Pretel allegedly recruited the Colombians via a closed WhatsApp group, it was Intriago’s job to pay them. Each of the former soldiers was supposed to be paid $10,000, according to the Haitian investigation.
Pretel, Solages, Intriago and Veintemilla are awaiting trial on charges of conspiring to kill Haiti’s leader. The trial is now scheduled for May, though that date might change with the more serious charges levied against Sanon.
Last week, a former U.S. government informant was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to kill Moïse and admitting that he attended strategy meetings before the assassination in 2021.
Joseph Vincent, 58, a Haitian American, became the fourth of 11 defendants to be sentenced to life in the Miami federal case for his supporting role in the murder plot. Vincent is cooperating with federal prosecutors by providing evidence of the meetings, logistics and actions of some of the other co-defendants who still face trial.
A former informant with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Vincent is expected to be a key witness against other indicted co-conspirators, including fellow Haitian American Solages. Solages is accused of collaborating with CTU Security, the Doral-based company owned and operated by Intriago, who met with Solages in South Florida and in Haiti before Moïse’s assassination.
Vincent is also expected to provide inside information on Sanon.
Last week, a sixth defendant, Frederick Bergmann, 65, of Tampa, pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts: backing a “military expedition against a friendly nation” and violating U.S. export laws by smuggling bullet-proof vests to the Colombians in Haiti. Three related counts will be dismissed as part of his cooperation agreement with prosecutors. Bergmann, an accountant represented by attorney Henry Bell, faces up to 10 years in prison at his sentencing in April.
In October, John, the former senator, pleaded guilty to the murder conspiracy and related charges to Moïse’s killing and in December was sentenced to life in prison. He’s also cooperating with prosecutors.
John’s goal was to become the prime minister under Moïse’s successor following the leader’s removal from office, according to court records.
John, 52, acknowledged to FBI agents that he had met with some co-conspirators just before they “embarked on the mission to kill President Moïse” at his suburban home, according to court records. John admitted that he helped obtain rental vehicles, made introductions to Haitian gang members and tried to get firearms for the co-conspirators’ operation targeting the president, according to his statement filed with his plea agreement.
John, who is also known as John Joël Joseph and who features prominently in Haiti’s investigation, attended meetings in South Florida and Haiti with the main suspects and tried to acquire weapons and ammunition for them, according to the statement and other court records. He’s believed to have been a link between the various groups. On the night of the killing, he was in communication with several suspects.
Retired Colombian army officer Germán Alejandro Rivera Garcia, known as “Colonel Mike,” admitted that he met with several co-conspirators from Haiti and South Florida before leading the group of former Colombian soldiers to the Haitian president’s home to kill him. In October, Rivera, 45, was sentenced to life in prison in federal court, but he is hoping to get his sentence reduced with cooperation.
A former Colombian soldier, Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios, 45, who was at the president’s home on the night of the slaying, also pleaded guilty in December to the main murder conspiracy charge and faces up to life in prison. Palacios spent several months hiding in Haiti before escaping to Jamaica, from where he was later sent to the U.S. while tryhing to make his way back to Colombia.
Haitian businessman Rodolphe Jaar, 51, admitted to providing weapons, lodging and money in the conspiracy to assassinate the president. A dual Haitian and Chilean citizen, Jaar was sentenced in June to life in prison but is hoping to get his prison term decreased with cooperation. He had previously been convicted of drug trafficking in the United States.
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