SDNY COURTHOUSE, Oct 26 – During the trial that convicted Tony Hernandez, the brother of Honduras' president Juan Orlando Hernandez, on all four counts of guns and narcotics trafficking and false statements, the drug ledgers of one Nery Orlando López Sanabria a/k/a Magdaleno were used by the SDNY prosecutors.
Now a week after the verdict, Magdaleno has been murdered in a supposedly maximum security prison in Santa Barbara, Honduras. Speculation is that he was killed so as to not produce further evidence against President Juan Orlando Hernandez. Protesters calling for his resignation after the verdict have been tear gassed. So what will the Office of US Attorney Geoffrey Berman and the wider US Justice Department do?
Inner City Press which covered the trial daily has asked the UN for the comment of SG Antonio Guterres who met with JOH in September 2019 and did not even mention corruption, much less drug trafficking. Nor has Guterres and his spokesman Stephane Dujarric responded to request they belatedly release the report produce the report of the panel Guterres sent to Honduras to in essence back up JOH: Marcie Mersky, Ana Catalina Soberanis, Mirna Cuenta and Javier Cabreja about which Inner City Press asked at the 8 Feb 2018 noon briefing before it was roughed up and banned from the UN, 480 days now. We'll have more on this.
Inner City Press on October 18 asked the defendant's lawyer Omar Malone about this client's post arrest statement, the admitted murders by the cooperating witnesses, and upcoming sentencing submission. Video and answers here.
The trial began with a bang on October 2 with the charge that already life imprisoned El Chapo Guzman gave the defendant $1 million for this brother, the president. On October 7, cooperating witness and former mayor Alexander Ardon described the meeting, with both El Chapo Guzman and Tony Hernandez present and the cash in plastic bags, see thread and see below.
The trial was before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge P. Kevin Castel and Inner City Press was live tweeting it. See also Patreon here on the fast mention and shut-down of Nikki Haley's name.
On Sunday October 13 Assistant US Attorney Emil Bove informed Judge Castel that a deal on evidence was reached with Tony Hernandez' lawyers, to modify and presumably expand how much of the defendant's post arrest statement will be seen by the jury; DEA Agent Gonzalez who conducted the interview with not be subject to more cross examination. See Patreon, here.
Here was the letter: "The Government writes to inform the Court that the parties have reached agreement regarding Government Exhibits 403 and 403-T, which contain excerpts of the defendant’s postarrest statement. (See Tr. 754). Although the Government believes that the defendant waived any argument under the Rule of Completeness by failing to timely object (see id. at 745-47), the Government has agreed in response to defense requests to modify certain segments of the recording (GX 403) and the corresponding transcript (GX 403-T). The Government will publish the modified segments to the jury on Tuesday, October 15. The parties are also in agreement that there will be no further cross-examination of Special Agent Gonzalez. Respectfully submitted, GEOFFREY S. BERMAN United States Attorney By Emil J. Bove III."
