Arkansan killed 4, says accused man
Posted on Friday, August 15, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/234298/
MIAMI — A man accused in the slayings of four people aboard a charter fishing boat last year testified Wednesday that his co-defendant — a man from Arkansas — was responsible for all of the killings, and that the man threatened him at gunpoint.
In an evidence hearing that previewed his likely trial testimony, Guillermo Zarabozo said that Kirby Archer forced him to get into a life raft after the September 2007 killings aboard the Joe Cool, which had run out of fuel near the Bahamas.
Archer, 36, who is from Strawberry in Lawrence County, pleaded guilty last month to the killings of the boat captain, Jake Branam, his wife Kelly Branam, and crew members Scott Gamble and Samuel Kairy. Their bodies have not been recovered.
Despite Archer’s plea, Zarabozo intends to stand trial, claiming that Archer never told him there might be violence aboard the boat. Zarabozo also has said that Archer fatally shot the four people using his gun when Jake Branam refused to take them to Cuba. Archer was trying to flee an arrest warrant over a robbery in Arkansas, prosecutors have said.
Prosecutors have cast doubt on Zarabozo’s claims of innocence, asserting that there were likely two weapons and that he shot some of the victims. Zarabozo said Tuesday that Archer told him he also had a gun, but Zarabozo said he never saw it. The guns have not been found.
Zarabozo faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder and other charges. The trial is scheduled for September. Archer is scheduled to be sentenced on his guilty plea in October. He also faces a possible life sentence.