Eric Volz

On 21 November 2006, Doris Jimenez was raped and murdered inside Sol Fashion, the clothing boutique she owned in San Juan del Sur.

Jimenez, an attractive and well-liked 25-year-old woman, was last seen alive outside her store at 11:30 a.m.

At approximately 2:00 p.m., a building watchman entered Jimenez’s store after noticing that, unusually, it was closed.

He found Jimenez dead on the floor of the shop with her limbs tied together using bed sheets.

She had been raped, sodomized, and suffocated.

Wadded paper and rags had been forced into her mouth, causing her to choke and die.

Initial public speculation suggested that the brutal murder had been a robbery gone wrong, but police quickly dismissed that theory by issuing warrants for four men.

Two of the suspects were local surfers, known drug users, and petty criminals: Julio Martin Chamorro Lopez, 30, known as "Rosita," and Nelson Antonio Lopez Dangla, 24, known as "Krusty."

Lopez was arrested after a police officer saw him near the store shirtless, with fresh scratches and behaving nervously. His friend Dangla was arrested shortly afterward.

The third person sought by police was Armando Llanes, 20, who had been casually dating Jimenez at the time of her death.

Llanes produced a statement from officials at his university confirming his alibi and was not taken into custody.

Despite being two hours away from the crime scene and having a detailed alibi, the fourth man arrested was 27-year-old Eric Volz, Jimenez’s former boyfriend.

On the morning of Jimenez’s murder, Volz was at his home in Managua, which also served as the offices of EP Magazine.

He entered the office area at approximately 9:15 a.m. and was seen by five coworkers, the security guard, and the housekeeper.

Throughout the morning, Volz attended several meetings, including one with journalist Ricardo Castillo and a conference call with a business contact in Atlanta, Georgia, which ended at 1:14 p.m.

At 2:43 p.m., in the presence of five witnesses, Volz received a phone call from one of Jimenez’s friends informing him of her death.

Visibly distressed, he immediately rented a car and left for San Juan del Sur at approximately 3:00 p.m. to support Jimenez’s family.

Despite his apparent absence from the crime scene, he was arrested and charged with Jimenez’s murder shortly after her funeral on 23 November 2006.

While in custody, Lopez identified Volz as the killer.

In an unsigned statement to police, which he later claimed had been obtained through torture, Lopez alleged that Volz had offered him $5,000 to accompany him to the store, where the jealous former boyfriend, enraged by Jimenez’s relationship with Llanes, raped and murdered her.

When Dangla was arrested, he had injuries to his penis and scratches on his neck, torso, arms, and hands.

He told police that Volz had paid him to meet outside the clothing boutique and carry two bags into a car.

The charges against Dangla were dropped in exchange for his testimony.

Anti-foreigner sentiment was widespread because of increasing foreign investment and the growing divide between the "gringo haves" and the "local have-nots."

Public opinion quickly turned against the American, with local newspapers publishing headlines such as "Young businesswoman victim of jealous gringo" and "US Embassy advises accused gringo to keep quiet."

Several days before Volz’s arraignment on 7 December 2006, a vehicle drove through San Juan del Sur broadcasting a message over a loudspeaker urging people to "Bring justice to the gringo."

An angry crowd gathered at the arraignment, and Volz and his defense team were attacked as they left the courthouse, forcing them to flee and seek refuge in a nearby gymnasium.

Because of strong public sentiment against him, Volz chose to be tried by a judge rather than a jury.

Volz was held in several prisons, where he received repeated threats and spent a week in a medical ward.

The trial was originally scheduled for 26 January 2007, and at a special hearing a pretrial judge ordered Volz released to house arrest until the proceedings. The trial was later postponed until 14 February 2007.

The case was heard before specialized trial judge Dr. Ivette Turuno Blanco.

Volz’s family struggled to understand the Nicaraguan justice system, and comments they made were exploited by the partisan local press.

Jimenez’s mother, Mercedes Alvarado, fueled public opinion by claiming she had been offered $1,000,000 to testify to Volz’s innocence, an offer that the Volz family firmly denied and could not have afforded.

The Volz family mobilized public support in the United States, and thousands of supporters followed the trial through internet blogs written by Volz’s parents, who had nearly bankrupted themselves paying for his defense.

Court records showed that the original murder charges were filed against Volz and Armando Llanes, Jimenez’s boyfriend at the time of her death.

The charges were based on Lopez’s confession but were later amended to include all four men: Volz, Llanes, Lopez, and Dangla.

After Llanes established his alibi and Dangla agreed to testify for the prosecution, the charges were amended again to include only Volz and Lopez.

Dangla became the prosecution’s key witness.

He testified that he had seen Volz in San Juan del Sur on the morning of the murder and that Volz instructed him to meet at Sol Fashion at 1:00 p.m.

According to Dangla, Volz emerged from the store at 1:00 p.m., handed him two bags that felt like they contained clothing, instructed him to place them in the car, paid him 50 córdobas, and drove toward Managua.

Jimenez’s mother testified about Volz’s jealousy, but Dangla was the only witness who placed Volz at the crime scene. His testimony was presented so poorly that everyone in the courtroom, including the judge, laughed.

The defense presented Volz’s alibi through approximately ten witnesses who had seen him in Managua before, during, and after the murder, but the judge allowed only three of them to testify.

A hairdresser testified that she had cut Volz’s hair that afternoon, while an American business associate and journalist Ricardo Castillo testified that they had been in meetings with him throughout the relevant period.

The defense also demonstrated that none of the physical evidence recovered from the crime scene was linked to Volz.

Both Lopez and Dangla had fingernail scratches on their arms, and Dangla had multiple scratches on various parts of his body.

Volz testified in his own defense. When asked how he had received the scratch on his shoulder, he replied, "I got it carrying Doris's casket at the funeral."

Lopez, Volz’s co-defendant, presented one witness in his defense but did not testify himself.

Outside the courthouse, tensions escalated as hundreds of Nicaraguan protesters were held back by national police. During the defense's closing argument, gunfire erupted as riot police clashed with the crowd.

After two hours of deliberation, the judge delivered her verdict.

On 15 February 2007, she rejected Volz’s alibi witnesses, stated that it was impossible for him to have received scratches from carrying a coffin, and concluded that he could not have traveled to San Juan del Sur as quickly as he claimed from the capital.

She found both defendants guilty and sentenced them to the maximum prison term of 30 years.

The crowd outside the courthouse celebrated the verdict, shouting "Justice!" and whistling.

Volz’s defense team immediately appealed his conviction.

Several members of the United States government reviewed the case and appealed on Volz’s behalf, while the Free Eric Volz movement continued to campaign for his release.

On 17 December 2007, a three-judge panel overturned Volz’s conviction and ordered his release.

Despite the ruling, some members of the Nicaraguan judiciary appeared determined to keep Volz imprisoned.

The prosecution attempted to appeal the decision, and trial judge Ivette Turuno Blanco, who was required to sign the release papers, failed to report to work on the afternoon she was supposed to do so and remained absent for several days.

Eventually, Volz’s mother petitioned the courts for her son’s release, and an appeals court signed the necessary documents.

On 21 December 2007, after spending more than a year in prison, Volz was released.

Many Nicaraguans remained strongly opposed to Volz and claimed he had been freed only because of pressure from the United States government.

Fearing vigilante retaliation and reportedly suffering both physically and mentally from his year in prison, Volz left Nicaragua on the afternoon of his release.