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Man gets 6 years in voodoo case

A Haitian pleads no contest to attempted murder. He was accused of attacking a friend with a hatchet after a ritual went awry.

By DUANE BOURNE
Published March 10, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - A 26-year-old Orlando man, accused of using a hatchet to bash his friend's head during a 2000 voodoo ritual in a field in eastern Hernando County, pleaded no contest to an attempted murder charge on Wednesday.

John Wener Bresil was sentenced to six years in prison, according to Hernando County Jail and court records. No contest means that Bresil offered no defense to the charge and did not admit guilt.

Bresil's trial was scheduled to begin on March 21 in Hernando County Circuit Court.

After Bresil completes his sentence at a Florida prison, he will be deported to his homeland, Haiti, records state. Bresil had emigrated from Haiti nine months before the attack.

Bresil, who speaks Creole and used an interpreter for his court appearances, has been in segregated custody at the Hernando County Jail since August 2004, after he did not show up for a pretrial hearing, records show.

The case began five years ago when Bresil offered to help a friend, also from Haiti, pick winning Lotto numbers. He was supposed to use a hatchet, gloves and two ski masks while communicating with the spirits. But when the ceremony did not go as planned, he attacked Pierre E. Gilles, then 27, who escaped, according to Hernando County sheriff's records.

In January 2000, Bresil was arrested and charged with aggravated battery in the attack, which took place in an open field on Burwell Road, east of Ridge Manor. Investigators accused him of taking part in a voodoo ritual that almost had deadly consequences for Gilles. Gilles, also of Orlando, suffered three deep head wounds but recovered from his injuries.

Prosecutors later upgraded the charges to attempted murder with a deadly weapon when the motive, and the events surrounding the incident, became clearer.

Bresil denied trying to hurt Gilles, saying he was acting in self-defense after he thought that Gilles was going to summon evil spirits to kill him.

The men had become acquainted two weeks before the incident when Bresil was hired to install cable TV at Gilles' home. Gilles knew that Bresil's father practiced voodoo and asked him to help pick Lotto numbers.

During an interview with the Times at the county jail shortly after his 2000 arrest, Bresil said that he and Gilles drove from Orlando to Hernando County because they thought that authorities would not intrude on their ceremony.

Duane Bourne can be reached at 352 754-6114 or dbourne@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 10, 2005, 01:14:16]