Trial to start in gruesome South Beach kidnapping, rape and slaying
Joel Lebron, the suspected shooter in the gruesome 2002 kidnapping, rape and slaying of a South Miami teen, is going to trial.
Openings statements are set Tuesday for Lebron, who is accused in the slaying of Ana Maria Angel, 18, who was abducted off a South Beach street along with her boyfriend as they took a midnight stroll.
Angel’s kidnap, gang rape and murder shocked South Florida for its sheer brutality.
Five men, police say, drove the couple north on Interstate 95, taking turns raping Angel while boyfriend Nelson Portobanco crouched on the floor of the truck. The men slit Portobanco's throat and left him for dead by the side of the highway in Broward County. He survived and alerted police.
After a massive search, Angel's body was discovered on a roadside in Palm Beach County with a gunshot to the back of the head. Her hands were clasped in prayer.
Prosecutors say Lebron fired the fatal shot. Jury selection began Monday and finished late Tuesday in front of Miami-Dade Circuit Judge William Thomas.
Lebron, if convicted, faces the death penalty. His rial comes after a decade of legal wrangling and the earlier trials of three co-defendants, each of whom was convicted.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/ne...-and-sl/nR8p8/
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