- Suspects allegedly plotted to blow up the Sears Tower/istock photo
Talk about determination on the part of the government. First off, there were two mistrials. Then in this third trial, deliberations were interrupted after a juror got sick. Then came another interruption: another juror refused to deliberate and the judge finally dismissed her.
BY JAY WEAVER
Miami Herald
MIAMI — After two previous mistrials, a federal jury Tuesday finally reached verdicts in the Bush-era terrorism case of six Miami men charged with conspiring with al Qaeda — convicting five and acquitting one.
The racially mixed jury convicted the Liberty City Six’s ringleader, Narseal Batiste, 35, along with four of his colleagues: Patrick Abraham, 29, Stanley Grant Phanor, 33, Rotschild Augustine, 25, and Burson Augustin, 24.
The only freed man: Naudimar Herrera, 25, who hugged the other defendants and his attorney, Richard Houlihan, after the verdicts, then cried outside the courtroom where he embraced his girlfriend.
”God is real,” said Herrera, who condemned the guilty verdicts for his fellow defendants. “It’s not right. They don’t deserve this. All of us were supposed to be innocent. It’s all B.S.
“They’re going to come back and fight this. It ain’t over.”
