2 ACQUITTED IN LETELIER MURDER CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680029-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: May 31, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680029-1
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ARTICLE API;'E.U
019 PAGE !
Not Guilty Verdict
Reverses the Finding:
Of First rf i'1a1 s Jury-
By Laura A. Kiernan-._
Waahington PoaIStatt Writer
Two anti-Castro Cubans were acs
quitted yesterday by a U.S...District
Court jury of murder and conspiracy
in connection with the 1976_ car,
bombing assassination of former,
Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier.-
It was a dramatic reversal of another
jury's verdict more than two years ago.
convicting the two men of all charges.:
The two defendants, Guillermo;
Novo Sampol and Alvin Ross. Diaz,.
who were serving life terms in. prison -
until a federal appeals court - granted'
them a new trial; stood silently as jury;
foreman Catherine Nicholson, delivL.
ered the verdict at 1:48 p.m. yester-.
day. The jury of eight women and
four men had deliberated for a[mosr
17 hours over three days before-they
reached a verdict.
The jury did convict Novo, 41, of
two counts of making false declara.
tions to a federal grand jury that was
investigating the Letelier assassinationj
considered the most notorious act -of
international terrorism ever=' com
mitted in Washington. Letelier, 44,
and an . associate, Ronni. Karperr Mofr.
fitt, 25, were killed when a bomb ex=
ploded under Letelier's car' as it.
rounded Sheridan Circle Qn Embassy,
Row on Sept. 21, 1976.
Novo's lawyer, Paul A. Goldberger;:
sat on the edge of his seat at the dew
fense table as Nicholson said that the
? jurors found his client "not guilty"-of
conspiracy and murder in connection-
with, the two deaths. A companion OF
Novo's, who identified herself only'as
Maria, clasped the hand of Ross' wife,-,.
Sady, whom he married shortly after-!
the two men were released from jail-;
last April on $400,000 bond. U.S. Dish
trict Judge Barrington D. - Parker '
stopped a federal marshal -who 438;`-
going going to silence the two.-sobbing :
THE WASHINGTON POST
31 May 1981
After the jurors had left the sixth---
floor courtroom, Rom and Novo and
their lawyers embraced as the pros-
ecutors stood nearby. Later,,. Ross, 48,.
said he plans to "put my life together;'..'.
start working and try to overthrow
Castro." Novo, who like Ross is a
member of the Cuban nationalist
movement in northern New Jersey;
said, "I feel wonderful, wonderful. Jus-
tice has been done."
U.S. Attorney Charles F.C. Ruff lis-
tened to the verdict from the back of
the courtroom with his head bowed
and said afterward he had no. corn",
ment on the jury's decision.
Assistant U.S. Attorney
rence Barcella Jr. said later,. :`It's a- ,
disappointment, but we accept: ? the
jury's verdict." Assistant U.S;.attor- :-
neys If Lowell Brown and Cary. M._'
Feldman were also part of. the- pros-
ecution team that had reassembled
the complicated murder . case -- last.-
March after the Justice Department--
decided not to ask the U.S. ; Supreme.
Court to review the appeals court rul-
ing that reversed the original convic-
tions. The appeals court said that tes-
timony.against Novo and Ross from
fellow prisoners was improperly intro-
duced as evidence at the first trial. Reached by telephone at her home
in Washington, Letelier's widow; Is-
abel, said, "I think justice has differ-
ent ways of showing itself. My hus-
band is not here any more. What can
I say? Ronni is not here any more."
The government's case had rested
heavily at both trials on the testimony
of their key witness, Michael Vernon
Townley, an American-born agent for
the Chilean secret police, once known
as DINA. Townley told both juries
that under orders from his DINA.su-
periors, he recruited the Cubans to
help him carry out the murder of Le-
telier, an ardent, outspoken critic of
the military regime of Chile's presi-
dent, Augusto Pinochet. Townley
pleaded guilty in. 1978 to conspiracy
to murder a foreign official and is
serving 31/.2 to 10 years in prison.
Defense lawyers Goldberger and
Lawrence A. Dubin attacked Townley
during the trial as an accomplished
liar who made a deal to cooperate
with the U.S. government, after he
was expelled from Chile in 1978, to
protect himself and then implicated
the, Cubans to bolster the prosecu-
tion's case. Neither Novo nor Rosa
testified at either trial. -,
women w Sanitized Copy Approved for Release
The defense theories at the two
trials were sharply different- At t
first trial, ending in convic :ons the
e ense con en t t the en-
tr Intelligence Agency had orches-
trate the murder of Letelier, with
Townes acting as a double agent. At
the retrial, the defense said that the
Chilean government under Pinochet,
DINA and Townley had carried out
the murder _pi of and that Tow nl
~
-
ex-
cl
had detonated the high powere
-T.ete
plosive thatblew up lier's car.
to ter, 44 at the time of his .
death, held various high-ranking po-.
sitions under the coalition government
of Marxist Salvador Allende, who was
killed during a military coup led by
Pinochet in September 1973. Letelier
spent a year in a Chilean prison camp
in the Straits of Magellan, was ex=
pelted from Chile and came to the
United States with his family in 1975.
He and Moffitt were employed at the
Lr;slitute for Policy Studies, a leftist
t` -~ . tank on foreign and 'military
a;a._s in Washington, when they were
killed. Ronni Moffitt's husband, Mi-
chael, who was also in the car, sur-
vived.
The prosecution contended that the
Cubans_ hoped to establish a govern-
ment in exile in Chile and hoped to
gain. favor with that government by
assisting in the assassination of Le-
teller, who had been stripped of his
Chilean citizenship and declared an
enemy of the country. The defense
said the Cubans never got anytielp
from Chile iiUw`ece made "scope-
g-oatsin the Lete iu ier case in o er to
shield the Pinochet government from
-
cu Qa ii it in tt a murders.
After the jury announced the ac-
qui'tti Fyeeterday, God erger said the
e ease was una a et t e ocu-
ments it n to prove the CIA
e ense. s felt this theory fat the
retrial made sense so we went for it,"
Goldberger said.
Asked d if the two theol ies were in-
consistent, Goldberger said, "You
don't have to be consistent. You just
have to win."
which lasted about
ial
t
At th
r
e re
,
21/2 weeks{ the defense also presented
new evidence to the jury about a
taped conversation of a telephone call!
that Townley made from the U.S.
attorney's office to a friend in Chile
during the original trial in January
1979. During that call, Townley made
disparaging remarks about Judge Par-
ker and said he would ask friends to
make threatening calls to the judge.
2010/07/22: CIA-RDP90-00552 R000403680029-1 _ VTINUI'D