MIAMI — A group of 22 newly indicted defendants in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse made their first appearance in a Miami federal court on Monday, where the charges against them were read and court-appointed attorneys were assigned.

Federal prosecutors, arguing they were flight risks, sought pretrial detention hearings for all but one of the defendants: a Margate resident charged with the lesser offense of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud in connection to the $343,000 that a certified public accountant and 20-year FBI veteran says went into the operation. The analyst testified at a previous trial earlier this year that the money was assembled through a patchwork of loans, credit cards, wire transfers and pandemic relief funds.

Jameela Ammara Simmons, a mother of three who worked for a moving and insurance company before quitting three weeks ago, was the only one of 22 defendants to appear in court in regular street clothes. The others were dressed in tan-colored prison uniforms with orange or brown shirts underneath as they sat in the jury box with headphones, listening to interpreters.

The group is among the 29 additional defendants prosecutors added to the case days before one of the main defendants, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, is scheduled to go to trial in a Miami federal courtroom on Sept. 28.

The new charges, which include five defendants not yet in custody, mark a major expansion of the long-running conspiracy case, which prosecutors are now characterizing as a planned coup d’état. The sudden expansion had defense attorneys, who were contacted only the day before, scrambling Monday.

While waiting for the prisoners to emerge out of the federal courthouse elevators, attorneys were seen searching online to quickly familiarize themselves with the case, which has already led to four convictions in May.

With several lawyers unable to appear, colleagues stepped in as U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette Reid scheduled bond hearings and arraignments to begin on Friday.

Among those who appeared in court Monday were 17 former Colombian soldiers, including three members of the so-called Delta team accused of entering the president’s second-floor bedroom, where he was found shot to death, and a former Haitian government functionary, Joseph Félix Badio, who has emerged as a central figure in the plot.

All had been imprisoned in Haiti and now face the principal charge of conspiring to kill or kidnap a person outside of the United States after their transfer to Miami on Sunday afternoon.

The Colombian military veterans had been hired as security contractors by the Doral-area firm Counter Terrorist Unit and its affiliate, Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy, collectively known as CTU. The Colombians had initially been recruited to provide security for Sanon, a South Florida resident and Haitian American who sought to replace Moïse as president, and is now accused of conspiring to kidnap or kill him.

Badio, 63, a former official in Haiti’s Justice Ministry and anti-corruption unit, was wheeled into the courtroom in a wheelchair, while the other defendants were escorted in single file, their hands and feet shackled.

In all, 22 defendants appeared before U.S. Magistrate Lisette Reid. Badio and the Colombians have each been charged with three counts in the superseding indictment, including the main charge in the case: conspiracy to kidnap or kill Moïse, who was shot 12 times on July 7, 2021.

The new defendants were joined in court by Sanon and three others who were already in the United States and were newly charged.

Sanon was the first of the group of 22 to appear before Reid. He entered a plea of not guilty to the charges in the indictment, and demanded a jury trial as his attorneys Humberto Dominguez and co-counsel Zeljka Bozanic stood next to him.

Prosecutors describe Sanon as “a purported pastor and medical doctor that aspired to become the President of Haiti,” and accuse him of working with CTU and Broward-based Worldwide companies, the Colombians and other individuals in what they described as “a planned coup d’état in Haiti including the planned killing or kidnapping of President Moïse.”

While CTU hired the Colombians, Worldwide provided financing, including $175,000 line of credit to CTU to support Sanon, prosecutors say. The companies’ owners were convicted earlier this year and are awaiting sentencing before U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra, who is scheduled to begin presiding over Sanon’s conspiracy trial on Monday.

After Sanon’s brief appearance, Samir Handal was next. Handal owned the house where Sanon stayed part of the time leading up to the assassination. Handal faces three charges, including providing material support to carry out a violation of the U.S. Neutrality Act resulting in death and conspiracy to kill or kidnap a person outside the United States. If convicted, Handal faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison.

A Haitian national who was arrested in Miami, Handal, 68, is the only defendant to retain private lawyers and is being represented by criminal defense lawyers Paul Petruzzi and Lawrence Hashish. He will be arraigned on Monday.

“The prosecutors in Miami have been telling Mr. Handal for years that he would be charged in this case. And for all those years, Mr. Handal has proclaimed his innocence and his intention to appear in court to face the allegations head on,” Petruzzi said after the hearing. “My office made every effort to secure the government’s agreement for his voluntary appearance to do so, but the prosecutors and agents in Miami wanted to try to create a media circus instead. I look forward to trial.”

Lack of assets

As Reid questioned the defendants about their finances to determine whether they qualified for court-appointed lawyers, most of the Colombians said their only income came from military pensions of less than $1,000 a month. They also said they owned no stocks or cryptocurrency, had no assets worth $5,000 or more and used their pensions to care for their families, including elderly mothers.

Several of the Colombians, as well as Badio, reported owning homes. All said they had no idea what the properties were worth because they had been imprisoned in Haiti for five years. At least one defendant said he was facing bankruptcy in Colombia.

After hearing about the pensions and the homes, Reid instructed lawyers to determine whether their clients could contribute toward the cost of their defense.

“There may be some amount to contribute,” Reid said after defendant Carlos Giovanni Guerrero Torres, 52, who was known as “Don Francisco,” told her he owned a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in Colombia. He did not know the value, he said, because he has been in jail since shortly after the assassination.

Retired Sgt. Edwin Enriquez Blanquicet Rodriguez told the judge he used his pension to support his 15-year-old son, who wants to enter the Colombian Air Force, and a 10-year-old son. An American-trained soldier who spent 21 years in the Colombian army, Blanquicet testified at the earlier trial about being at the end of the convoy deployed to the president’s house and later coming under gunfire from Haitian police.

As Blanquicet spoke, the judge remarked on a pattern emerging in the proceedings.

“It looks like everyone here has a government pension” from Colombia, she said.

“That is something I am thinking through,” Reid added, saying she planned to raise the issue with Judge Becerra. ”This is something we may have to look into in this case.”

Badio, meanwhile, told the judge he owns a home in New York but contrary to what was asserted in the previous trial, he and his wife are still paying a mortgage. Before his imprisonment, he said, he earned $1,800 a month working for Haiti’s justice ministry and an anti-corruption unit.

When Reid asked if he was employed, Badio responded: “I’ve been in prison for five years.”

Badio was one of two Haitians who remained imprisoned in Haiti in connection with the assassination after armed gangs orchestrated a mass jailbreak in 2024. Before his arrest, he had spent more than two years on the run.

Haitian police finally captured him in October 2023 after an officer spotted him shopping at a supermarket in Petion-Ville. Sporting a salt-and-pepper beard, Badio appeared frail during Monday’s proceedings, slouching to one side in his wheelchair.

The only defendant allowed to post bond was Simmons, 46. Simmons, now unemployed, was allowed to post a $150,000 bond to be co-signed by her mother by Friday. In the meantime, Reid allowed her to remain free on condition she surrenders her passport, steers clear of the defendants in the case and regularly checks in with authorities.

_____

©2026 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.