In a major legal milestone for the high-profile 2021 killing of former Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, a Florida federal court has delivered guilty verdicts against four men on charges tied to the assassination conspiracy, multiple U.S. media outlets confirmed Friday.
The four defendants — Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla, and James Solages — were found responsible on two core counts: plotting to either kill or kidnap Moïse, and providing critical material support that enabled the 2021 attack. Additional convictions were also handed down for violations of the U.S. Neutrality Act, a federal law that bars citizens and residents from organizing hostile operations against foreign nations from American soil.
With these convictions, the four men now face the possibility of life imprisonment behind bars, according to official case details. U.S. prosecuting attorneys have laid out that the South Florida region served as the central operational hub for the entire conspiracy. Prosecutors argue that plotters not only planned and funded the assassination from the area, but also worked to install their hand-picked replacement leader to take over Haiti following Moïse’s death.
This conviction marks the latest development in a sprawling case that has already seen five other co-defendants plead guilty to charges connected to the assassination; those five are already serving out life sentences. The attack that put this conspiracy in motion took place on July 7, 2021, when Moïse was shot and killed at his private residence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, in a brazen early-morning assault that sent shockwaves through the Caribbean nation and the international community.