2 ACQUITTEN IN LETELIER MURDER CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606730004-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: May 31, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606730004-7
ARTICLE APPE.4itbD
ON PAGE
A Letelier.:
P,,A-.,- u rd J.
Not Guilty Verdict
Reverses. the Finding
Of First Vial's Jury.
By Laura A,. Kiernan--_-
Two anti-Castro Cubans were ac-
quitted yesterday by a U.S...District
Court jury of murder and conspiracy
in connection with the 1976- can
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 . deliv-'
ered the verdict at 1:48 p.m. yester-
day. The jury of eight women and
four men had deliberated for: almost
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 assassination?
considered the most notorious act -of
international terrorism ever-''com-
mitted in Washington. Letelier,' 44,'
and an . associate, Ronni.Karperr'Mof
fitt, 25, were killed when a bomb ex=-
ploded under Letelier's car, as it.
rounded Sheridan Circle on-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;_.
Sally, whom he married shortly after .'
the two men were released . from
last April on $400,000 bond. U.S. Dish-
trict Judge Barrington D.. - Parker'
stopped a federal marshal =who '-was;
going to silence the two-sobbing -.
women while the verdict was need.',
THE WASHINGTON POST
31 May 1981
After the jurors had left the `sixth=
floor courtroom, Ross and Novo and
their lawyers embraced as 'the pros- .
ecutors stood nearby. Later, Ross, 48,.
said he plans to "put my life together y
start working and try to overthrow
Castro." Novo, who like Ross is a .
member of the Cuban nationalist..
movement in northern New-_Je-rsey,
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 na'com='
ment on the jury's decision.. _ ; .
Assistant U.S. Attorney : & Lawf;
rence Barcella Jr. said later,. It's a
disappointment, but we . accept:: the -
jury's verdict." Assistant U.S,' attor- -'
neys M. Lowell Brown and Cary .11'L
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 3'/z 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
they Cubans to bolster the prosecu-
Lion's case. Neither Novo - nor Ross 1
testified at either trial.
The defense theories at the two
trials were sharply different. At' the
first trial, ending in convictions, the
e ense con n that the US. en,
tr me igence Agency had orches-
trated the murder of Letelier with
Towne actin as a double agent. At
retrial, t e defense said that the
Chilean government under Pinochet,
DINA and Townley had carried out
an t5at 't`own
the mur er p ot
_
'haclenat he-hiRh- ) ex-
losive tafTilew u ?- e ieerrswere car.
Letelier, .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
Ln titute for Policy Studies, a leftist
t - , tank on foreign and 'military
airs in Washington, when they were
killed. Ronni Moftitt'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-
telier, who had been stripped of his
Chilean citizenship and declared an
enemy of the country. The defense
said the Cubans never goany elp
f r o m - e an were maZpe-
oa& m -the Letelier case in order to
shield the Pinochet government from
culpability in them murders.
After the ' announced the ac-
quit yeste ay, o Der said the
e ensewas una a et t e ocu-
ments it niCkFed to rove the CIA
e ense. We to t t s t eo at the
retrial made sense so we went for it,"
Goldberger said.
Asked if the two theories were in-
consistent, Goldberger said, "You
don't Have to be consistent You, just
have to win."
At the retrial, which lasted about
2'/z 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. .
~. rf T1 l
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606730004-7