Ronny Zamora will be released from prison and deported to Costa Rica. He asserts his defense that TV shows led him to violence.
By Associated Press
Published June 2, 2004
MIAMI - A man whose defense as a teenager was that violent television shows, such as Kojak, led him to kill an elderly neighbor 27 years ago was released from state prison Tuesday into the custody of federal officials. They plan to deport him to his native Costa Rica.
Ronny Zamora, 42, spent 27 years in prison after being sentenced to life for fatally shooting 83-year-old Elinor Haggart at her Miami Beach home on June 3, 1977. He was eligible for release after completing 25 years of his sentence, but the Florida Parole Commission kept him incarcerated for two more years.
Department of Corrections officials transferred Zamora from Everglades Correctional Institution in Miami, spokeswoman Debbie Buchanan said Tuesday. The U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement was "moving very quickly to remove him as expeditiously as possible," spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said.
Under federal law, felons who are not U.S. citizens face deportation.
Before his release, Zamora said in an interview that he wants to find someone to start a family with when he gets to Costa Rica.
"That's what I've missed the most and what I want the most," Zamora told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "Now I'm getting out, and I have to make my own world."
Haggart's family had pushed for Zamora to be kept in prison.
Zamora "may feel that he can put his crime of murder behind him," Haggart's daughter, Joan H. Norcross, wrote in a letter to the Parole Commission last month. "But the Haggart family cannot put it behind us. Not only did he brutally murder an elderly lady, he took family from us."
Zamora's 1977 trial was one of the first televised after cameras were allowed in Florida courtrooms. His attorney, Ellis Rubin, argued that watching TV crime programs had blurred the line between fantasy and reality for Zamora, prompting him to kill.
Rubin tried to subpoena Kojak star Telly Savalas and experts who had studied television's effect on young minds. But trial Judge Paul Baker barred the testimony, saying it did not apply directly to Zamora's state of mind.
Rubin said Tuesday he stood behind his defense. He said that since the trial, several studies have shown a link between watching TV violence and committing violent acts. "I feel if he were tried today under the same defense, he would never be found guilty of first-degree murder," Rubin said.
In an appeal, Zamora turned against his lawyer and claimed the TV intoxication argument made a mockery of his defense. A federal appeals court upheld the conviction.
The killing occurred during a robbery and burglary. Zamora and an accomplice stole $400 and the woman's car, which they took to Disney World.
The accomplice, Darrell Agrella, who was 14 when arrested, was released from prison in 1986. He was given three life terms but not a minimum mandatory 25 years.
In Costa Rica, Zamora will work as a messenger for a law firm, said Roxana Pacheco Arce, consul general of Costa Rica in Miami. "He is a person who recognizes his mistakes. He is repentant," she said Tuesday. "He has taken advantage of his time to study and take courses. He has become a person ready to be part of society."
Zamora told the Sun-Sentinel he could have lost his way in prison, but instead spent much of his time reading, tutoring other inmates and attending rehabilitative programs.
"When I look back at how much of a kid I was and what I was facing, it had to be the hand of God on my shoulder," he said. "There are so many things, so many negative depravations, pitfalls, that a prisoner can succumb to and I've seen them. I've seen guys who came in as young as I did and today some of them are dead."
