MIAMI — Two men charged with killing four crew members on a fishing boat they chartered were ordered to remain held without bail Tuesday, despite defense attorneys' insistence that no evidence linked their clients to the crime.
Attorneys for Kirby Archer and Guillermo Zarabozo said there was no weight to prosecutors' highlighting of inconsistencies in the defendants' statements about what exactly happened aboard the 47-foot "Joe Cool" last month.
The defendants also provided conflicting statements on how they met, when they decided to charter a boat and the attire of pirates they said were responsible for the killings. But their attorneys said it was understandable.
"We're talking about horrendous, tragic events that happened on this boat," said Allan Kaiser, an attorney for Archer, 35. "There is no wonder that perceptions might differ."
In questioning the lead federal investigator on the case, Richard Blais Jr., defense attorneys sought to further illuminate evidence they have called thin.
Blais acknowledged he had no concrete proof that shell casings found on the boat could be linked to a Glock 9mm magazine for which detectives found a receipt. The investigator also said he had no proof there was not another boat near the "Joe Cool" that might corroborate the defendants' story that Cuban pirates came aboard and killed the crew. And Blais said forensics tests on computers seized in the case and on blood found on the boat were not completed.
"There is nothing that they have by way of physical evidence," said Anthony Natale, an attorney for Zarabozo, 20. Faith Mesnekoff, another attorney for Zarabozo, was more blunt: "The government is grabbing at straws."
Still, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ted Banstra said the gravity of the claims made it necessary to keep the suspects behind bars. They're due back in court Thursday for an arraignment on federal murder charges.
It is no easy case for prosecutors, with no bodies, no murder weapon, no witnesses and no confession. But they say the circumstantial evidence tells the story.
Among the items found in Zarabozo's backpack were knives, a blowgun and darts - "not indicative of luggage you would take on a vacation," noted Michael Gilfarb, a prosecutor. Bloodstains and a handcuff key were found on the boat.
Archer and Zarabozo paid $4,000 in cash for the "Joe Cool" to take them to the Bahamas on Sept. 22. The boat was reported missing the next day, and the two men were later found on its life raft not far from the abandoned and drifting vessel. No one was aboard.
The two men claim they were attacked at sea by pirates who fatally shot the boat's captain, wife and two crew members and ordered their bodies thrown in the ocean. These pirates, the men said, spared them and left aboard another vessel after the "Joe Cool" ran out of fuel en route to Cuba.
Missing and presumed dead are the captain, Jake Branam; his wife, Kelley Branam; and crew members Scott Gamble and Samuel Kairy. The Branams left behind two small children.
Archer had been charged in Arkansas with theft. He was accused of stealing more than $92,000 from a Batesville Wal-Mart where he had been a manager. Before he left Arkansas in late January, Archer was under investigation for purported child molestation, according to the FBI affidavit.