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Thread: Joel Gadiel Lebron - Florida

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    Joel Gadiel Lebron - Florida




    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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    Mistrial in Miami murder case won't delay justice long, prosecutors say

    Jury selection, which took two days the first time around, is already scheduled to begin Sept. 19, said Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office spokesman Ed Griffith. Witnesses are ready, Griffith said, and it won't take long to get the case back on track.

    Prosecutors said five men abducted Angel and Nelson Portobanco, both 18 and seniors at South Miami Senior High School, on April 28, 2002 and forced them into the back of a rented four-door pickup truck. There, the men took turns raping Angel as the truck made its way from Miami through Broward County. At one point they stopped to withdraw cash using Portobanco's ATM card, the surviving victim testified in 2007.

    Portobanco, beaten and stabbed in the head and back with his throat slashed, was dumped on the side of the highway near Sample Road, left for dead two hours after the ordeal began. He would later say he summoned the strength to get up because he knew his girlfriend was in danger.

    Angel's body was discovered two days after the murder near some trees near the Southwest 18th Street overpass of Interstate 95, several miles north of where Portobanco was abandoned. Her life ended with a shot to the head.

    The five defendants, all from the Orlando area, were captured the day the body was found.

    Lebron is charged with murder, kidnapping, robbery, rape and attempted murder. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

    Already convicted in the case are Lebron's nephew, Jesus Roman, 26, and co-defendants Cesar Mena, 32, and Victor Caraballo, 44. Roman and Mena are serving life sentences.

    Caraballo was sentenced to death after his conviction in 2007, but the sentence was overturned on appeal three years later – the Florida Supreme Court determined that jurors should not have been allowed to hear testimony from a mental health expert who determined he was lying about being mentally ill. He is awaiting a new sentence but could still end up on Death Row for his role in the crime.

    A fifth defendant, Caraballo's brother Hector, 40, is awaiting trial.

    "Defense attorneys for Hector Caraballo are still doing work to try to demonstrate that their client is 'mentally retarded' and therefore ineligible for the death penalty," said Griffith, the spokesman for the State Attorney's Office.

    Lebron's case was complicated early in the investigation when officials realized a tape that was supposed to contain the lengthy confession he reportedly gave to detectives was actually blank.

    Detectives had claimed that Lebron admitted all the key allegations of the crime, saying they only intended to rob the couple but ended up raping Angel and deciding to kill her and Portobanco to avoid being identified.

    Prosecutors wanted the detectives who conducted the interview with Lebron to testify about the alleged confession to jurors, but defense lawyers fought to keep such testimony out of the trial. After several years of appeals, prosecutors won the argument and prepared to put the detectives on the stand.

    It was during that testimony earlier this week that one Miami Beach detective, Larry Marrero, casually mentioned Roman's conviction, a piece of information jurors in the current case weren't supposed to know.

    That prompted the judge to order the mistrial.

    Efforts to reach Portobanco and Angel's mother, Margarita Osorio, were unsuccessful Friday. Prosecutors said both are on the witness list and are expected to testify when Lebron's trial restarts.

    http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/loc...,5169385.story
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    Appeals court upholds South Beach killer’s conviction

    An appeals court Wednesday upheld the conviction of a co-defendant convicted in the South Beach slaying of Ana Maria Angel, while jury selection began in a new trial for the accused shooter.

    The Third District Court of Appeal, without issuing a written opinion, upheld the conviction of Cesar Mena for the April 2002 slaying of Ana Maria Angel.

    Mena, 32, was one of five men arrested for the slaying of 18-year-old Angel, who was abducted, gang-raped and executed with a bullet to the back of the head alongside Interstate 95 in Palm Beach County.

    A jury convicted Mena in 2007 of first-degree murder and a slew of other felonies. He is serving life in prison. Two other men in the case have been convicted.

    Back in Miami-Dade on Wednesday, lawyers began selecting a jury for co-defendant Joel Lebron, 33, who is alleged to have shot and killed Angel as she begged for her life. He is facing the death penalty.

    Lebron’s first trial began last week, with featured gripping testimony from Angel’s mother and boyfriend, Nelson Portobanco, who was also kidnapped and survived the attack.

    But Miami-Dade Circuit Judge William Thomas declared a mistrial Thursday after the case’s lead detective inadvertently mentioned that one of the co-defendants had been earlier convicted. Prosecutors did not oppose the move for a new trial.

    Jurors are not supposed to know about the convictions of co-defendants because it could unfairly sway them.

    On Wednesday, Thomas carefully questioned potential jurors about their exposure to last week’s mistrial, and more than a dozen people were dismissed from the panels.

    http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/1...#storylink=cpy
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    Testimony continues in murder trial

    Testimony continued in the trial of Joel Lebron, one of five men accused of kidnapping, raping, and murder Ana Maria Angel in 2002.

    On Thursday, a DNA expert took the stand. Prosecutors were expected to call one more witness.

    Earlier this week, a forensic examiner and Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent testified and Miami Beach Police Detective Larry Marreno took the stand. Two weeks ago, Marreno's testimony led the judge to declare a mistrial.

    According to investigators, Angel was 18-years-old in the spring of 2002, two months from graduating South Miami High, when she was out celebrating an anniversary with her boyfriend at the time, Nelson Portobanco on South Beach when five people kidnapped them and forced them into their truck at gunpoint.

    As they rode north to Orlando where the defendants came from, Angel was repeatedly raped and Nelson was beaten, said prosecutors. Police said Portobanco was eventually thrown out of the truck along I-95 and left for dead.

    Both Portobanco and Magarita Osorio, Angel's mother, took the stand on Friday.

    The five are accused of killing Angel execution-style at the side of I-95 near Boca Raton to keep her from identifying them. Police said Lebron, now 33, was the gunman.

    Closing arguments are expected later this week in the case.

    Three of the five have been convicted. Two were sentenced to life in prison; one is awaiting a second sentencing hearing since his death penalty sentence was overturned.

    If convicted, Lebron could face the death penalty.

    http://www.local10.com/news/Testimon...z/-/index.html
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    Joel Lebron convicted in South Beach kidnap, rape and murder

    One decade after he kidnapped, raped and executed a South Miami teen, Joel Lebron is one step closer to Death Row.

    A jury on Friday afternoon convicted the Orlando man of the April 2002 murder of Ana Maria Angel, 18, a crime that shocked South Florida.

    Jurors deliberated just over an hour.

    The 12-person jury will return next week to hear more evidence and decide whether Lebron — whom prosecutors consider the ringleader of the five men arrested — should be executed, or spend his life in prison.

    “For me, he was the worst. He was the head of the group,” Angel’s mother, Margarita Osorio, told reporters after the verdict. “He was the one who shot. He did the most damage to Ana Maria.”

    After a decade of legal wrangling — including the trials and convictions of three co-defendants — the jury’s decision was not surprising.

    The evidence against Lebron proved overwhelming, and included a full confession, ample DNA evidence and an unsettling crime-scene video that depicted the interstate-side brush where Angel was murdered.

    Lebron and four other men had driven to South Beach from Miami, and after trying to sneak into a nightclub, settled on robbing someone to get money to continue partying, prosecutors said.

    Their targets: Angel and boyfriend Nelson Portobanco, then 17, who were weeks away from graduating from South Miami High.

    The couple had gone to Bayside Marketplace for dinner to celebrate their four-month anniversary. Angel then asked to go to South Beach to stroll on the sand.

    Afterward, the two were walking back to their car when Lebron — wielding a revolver — forced them into the group’s extended cab Ford F-150.

    Inside their truck, driving north, the men robbed the couple, then forced them to begin kissing.

    “It’s hard to believe. They demanded a sex show. They started to tease them and toy with them,” Miami-Dade prosecutor Reid Rubin told jurors during his closing argument.

    Then the men gang-raped Angel, forcing Portobanco to the floorboard.

    “Once inside the truck, they wanted everything. They wanted it all,” Rubin said. “They wanted property. They wanted her body. They wanted their lives.”

    On the side of Interstate 95 in Broward County, the men beat, kicked and stabbed Portobanco, who played dead as the men drove off. Bloodied but alive, he flagged down a motorist, who called 911.

    In Palm Beach, prosecutors said, Lebron marched Angel down an embankment on the side of I-95, forcing her to kneel in the thick brush next to a sound barrier wall.

    Rubin dramatically showed jurors the revolver, clicking it twice to mimic the two “dry” shots Lebron fired because the gun had only one bullet.

    As Angel begged for her life, her hands clasped in prayer, Lebron’s third attempt succeeded, killing the teen instantly with a bullet to the brain.

    A massive police task force cracked the case because one of the men used Portobanco’s phone to call an Orlando number. Detectives tracked the number to the apartments of brothers Hector and Victor Caraballo.

    There, officers found Angel’s purse, shoes and ID, plus Portobanco’s wallet.

    Investigators later arrested Lebron at another apartment complex, and found his boots splashed with blood — DNA tests showed the blood belonged to Portobanco.

    The scientific evidence played a major role in the case. Lebron’s DNA matched semen found inside Angel, clearly showing he raped her, Rubin said.

    Lebron’s attorney Jeffrey Fink suggested to jurors that perhaps the DNA sample had been contaminated.

    The defense certainly had an uphill battle. Fink attempted to shift the blame to Lebron’s co-defendants, suggesting that he was less culpable because they had been the ones to originally plan the trip from Orlando to South Beach

    Fink also blasted the investigation’s lead detective, who placed an audio recorder on the wrong setting, losing Lebron’s taped confession. The detectives nevertheless testified about the chilling details of the confession.

    “The reliability of the single most important piece of evidence, they destroyed,” Fink told jurors.

    This was not Lebron’s first trial — an earlier one started Sept. 10. But Miami-Dade Circuit Judge William Thomas declared a mistrial after a Miami Beach detective accidently mentioned to jurors that a co-defendant had been convicted, a fact jurors are not supposed to know.

    As in the first trial, these proceedings featured heart-wrenching testimony from Portobanco and Osorio, who recalled the last time she kissed her daughter goodbye, hours before the kidnapping.

    For Osorio and Portobanco’s mother, Friday’s verdict was bittersweet.

    “It’s been hard reliving this tragedy for the past few days” Portobanco said.

    Said Osorio: “I still have a great pain. It’s first-degree murder, and my daughter was still the victim. But at least, we know he won’t hurt anybody else.”

    http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/2...#storylink=cpy
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    Jury considers death penalty for rape-murder of teen

    Jurors Wednesday began hearing evidence to determine whether Joel Lebron, the Orlando man convicted last week of the kidnap, rape and murder of a South Miami High teen in April 2002, should face the death penalty.

    Lebron was one of five men arrested for kidnapping Ana Maria Angel and her boyfriend from South Beach. She was gang-raped and executed as she begged for her life alongside Interstate 95.

    Miami-Dade prosecutors are seeking the death penalty because of the “heinous, atrocious and cruel” nature of the “premeditated” slaying.

    Lebron’s defense lawyer told jurors Monday that Lebron should be spared because he grew up in a crime-infested neighborhood, was the son of a drunkard father and suffered a damaging head injury in a childhood car accident.

    The jury, probably on Thursday, will recommend execution or life in prison. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge William Thomas will deliver the sentence.

    http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/0...#storylink=cpy

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    Jury recommends death penalty for Florida man in 2002 slaying and abduction

    jury is recommending the death penalty for a man convicted in the 2002 abduction of a young South Florida couple and slaying of the 18-year-old woman.

    A Miami-Dade County jury voted 9-3 Friday in favor of the death penalty for 33-year-old Joel Lebron. The final decision on death or life in prison is up to a judge, who set a Nov. 9 hearing date.

    Authorities say then 17-year-old Nelson Portobanco and Ana Maria Angel were walking back to their car on South Beach when they were forced into a pickup truck by Lebron and four other men.

    Portobanco was stabbed and left for dead, but survived. Angel was raped and fatally shot alongside an Interstate 95 retaining wall in Palm Beach County. Authorities say Lebron was the ringleader.

    http://www.therepublic.com/view/stor...ouple-Abducted
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    Final defendant in 2002 South Beach rape and murder pleads guilty

    The fifth man accused of the kidnap, rape and murder of a South Miami teen pleaded guilty Friday and agreed to a 50-year prison term.

    Hector Caraballo, 40, is the last defendant to be convicted in the 2002 slaying of Ana Maria Angel, a murder that shocked South Florida in April 2002.

    Originally charged with first-degree murder, Caraballo pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and a slew of other felonies.

    Five Orlando men kidnapped Angel, 18, and her boyfriend, Nelson Portobanco, then 17, as they finished a stroll on the South Beach sand.

    After robbing them at gunpoint, the men drove north, gang-raping Angel inside a truck. The men slashed Portobanco’s throat, leaving him for dead on the side of Interstate 95 in Broward County. He survived and alerted police.

    With a motion of a slash across the throat, prosecutors say, Caraballo ordered the death of Angel. On the side of I-95 in Palm Beach County, co-defendant Joel Lebron marched Angel down an embankment, shooting her in the head as she fell to her knees, begging for her life.

    Miami-Dade prosecutor Laura Adams told the court that the state agreed to a plea because the evidence against Caraballo was not as strong as in the cases of the other men.

    Although he was believed to have participated in the rape, his DNA was not found on the victim’s body. Also, he did not confess to the rape. The plea was agreed to by Angel’s mother and Portobanco - both of whom were in court Friday.

    “They have endured four trials already. To get this resolved is important for them and the state,” Adams told Circuit Judge William Thomas.

    In all, four of the men went to trial and lost.

    A Miami-Dade jury last month convicted Lebron of first-degree murder, sexual battery and other felonies. Jurors, by a 9-3 vote, recommended the death penalty and Lebron is expected to be sentenced in December.

    Jesus Roman was not eligible for the death penalty because he was under 18 at the time of the murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.

    Cesar Mena is also serving life in prison.

    Victor Caraballo, Hector Caraballo’s bother, was sentenced to death but the punishment was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court. He is awaiting a new sentencing hearing, and could again receive the death penalty.

    Margarita Osorio, Angel’s mother, said after Friday’s hearing that she was relieved.

    “So many emotions, but there is certain closure,” Osorio said. “I think this will give us some rest.”

    Said Portobanco: “It’s a big step forward. We’re not done yet, but it gives us a chance to start the healing process and put this behind us.”

    http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/2...#storylink=cpy
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    Man in Miami Rape and Murder Case Wants to Withdraw Plea

    A man who accepted a 50-year sentence as part of a plea deal in the brutal rape and murder of a Miami teen and attempted murder of her boyfriend has changed his mind and wants to withdraw his plea.

    Hector Caraballo claims he didn't understand the court interpreter who translated the terms of the plea deal, the Miami Herald reported Thursday.

    “What Mr. Caraballo understood is that he will do 30 years in total, not 50,” Caraballo wrote in a letter to the judge, according to the Herald.

    Caraballo, 40, had been facing the death penalty had he gone to trial in the April 2002 murder of 18-year-old Ana Maria Angel.

    Police said Caraballo and four other Orlando men kidnapped Angel and her boyfriend, Nelson Portobanco, at gunpoint while the couple was taking an evening stroll on South Beach.

    The men gang-raped Angel and then executed her on the side of I-95 in Boca Raton with a gunshot to the head, prosecutors said. Portobanco was stabbed multiple times in an effort to kill him, but Portobanco survived.

    In September, Joel Lebron, who prosecutors say pulled the trigger, was convicted in the killing. A jury in October recommended the death penalty for Lebron.

    Caraballo had accepted the plea deal on Oct. 26 but claims his court-appointed lawyers rushed him through the plea.

    http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/M...176943351.html
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    Man sentenced to death in South Beach rape and murder

    An Orlando man must die for the execution-style shooting of a teen who was kidnapped from South Beach and brutally gang-raped, a judge ruled Thrusday.

    Joel Lebron, 34, is now headed to Death Row for the killing of Ana Maria Angel, a case that shocked South Florida.

    Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge William Thomas was emotional, nearly crying as he sentenced Lebron. As the teary judge left the court, he said: "To Mr. Lebron, God bless you. To the family, God Bless you."

    By a 9-3 vote, a jury recommended that Lebron be executed.

    It is rare for a judge to go against a jury's recommendation in a death penalty case.

    Lebron was one of five Orlando men who kidnapped Angel and her boyfriend, Nelson Portobanco, as the couple finished a romantic stroll on South Beach.

    The men gang raped Angel, then slit Portobanco's throat and left him on the side of Interstate 95 in Broward County. He survived and alerted police.

    Alongside the interstate in Palm Beach County, Lebron and another man later marched Angel down an embankment, into the brush near a sound barrier wall. Lebron shot Angel in the back of the head as she begged for her life, her hands clasped in prayer.

    The evidence against Lebron was overwhelming. Investigators traced a phone call made by one of the men to an Orlando address, where the couple's stolen belongings were found.

    Lebron confessed in chilling detail to investigators. His boots also had been splashed with Portobanco's blood, and his DNA was matched to semen found inside the victim.

    All five of the men have now been convicted. One of them, Victor Caraballo, originally sent to Death Row by Judge Thomas, is awaiting a re-sentencing after the Florida Supreme Court vacated the sentence.

    http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013...#storylink=cpy
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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