Three of six defendants in a plane hijacking case argued that two of the others unfairly implicated them during testimony.
By Associated Press
Published December 9, 2003
KEY WEST - The judge in the trial of six Cubans accused of hijacking a Cuban DC-3 passenger plane to Key West rejected a request Monday for a separate trial for three of the defendants.
Lawyers for Neudis Infantes Hernandez, Alvenis Arias Izquierdo and Yanier Olivares Samon said testimony last week by the alleged ringleader and his brother unfairly implicated their clients.
Alexis Norniella Morales and Miakel Guerra Morales testified that everyone aboard the plane was part of a plan to stage a hijacking. Their lawyers, Stewart Abrams and Ana Jhones, have said it was actually a freedom flight that was made to look like a hijacking so crew members could return to Cuba to curry favor.
"I'm being forced into that defense. I did not want it," said defense attorney Reemberto Diaz.
Diaz represents Samon, who is accused of slamming himself into the door leading from the DC-3's passenger cabin to its cockpit.
Lawyers for the three told U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King that the Morales' testimony undermined their strategy, which was to show the jurors that prosecutors had not sufficiently proven the guilt of their clients using testimony from the plane's other passengers and crew.
King denied the motion, saying Alexis Norniella Morales had not implicated the three deeply enough to require a mistrial.
"He's saying we are all in this together . . . to obtain our freedom, to go to America, to not hurt anybody, to not do anything that is dangerous," King said. "He placed it clearly in a light that is an innocent light, or attempted to do so."
The six Cubans are charged with conspiracy, air piracy and interfering with a flight crew, accused of using knives to commandeer a domestic Cuban flight with 31 passengers and forcing it to Key West on March 19.
The incident came during a spate of plane and boat hijackings in March and April that drew international attention. A Cuban architect hijacked another Cuban plane April 1, and Fidel Castro's government was criticized for executing three Cubans for hijacking a ferry.
