She was a well-known native of San Juan del Sur, a tiny seaside paradise near
here, where many were moved with relief when the news hit Friday evening.
"Justice was served for the death of my friend," said Gabby Sovalbarro, a
neighbor whose family rents rooms for about $4 a night. "They got what they
deserved."
That's a matter of debate.
Volz is to be sentenced Wednesday. He plans to appeal the case, which stems
from a flawed investigation backed by a witness who once was charged with the
crime himself and couldn't tell left from right on the witness stand.
The murky affair has mesmerized one of the poorest countries in Latin America
with a real-life novella, with Volz as the main character. Portrayed as an
arrogant expatriate, his guilt went unquestioned by locals and the nation's
news media.
"The inconsistencies are glaring," said a US government observer of the trial,
who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The testimony has been clearly flawed,
with rank hearsay. There is no physical evidence linking him to the crime
scene. There are no credible witnesses."
Crime and suspect
An experienced backpacker in Central America who fell in love with the area,
Volz had lived in California and Tennessee. He moved to San Juan two years ago
to surf, becoming a shrewd businessman who sold real estate to growing numbers
of foreign visitors.
San Juan, an assortment of shacks, multimillion-dollar properties and bars with
ocean views and televised American sports channels, has been in shock since
Jiménez was found dead in the back of her small clothing store last Nov. 21.
She was wrapped in sheets with her ankles and hands tied, her eyes and mouth
covered. Witnesses said scores of people trampled through the store to see her
before police arrived.
The horrid discovery and the legal circus that followed, in which Volz and
several others were charged in the case, cracked open feelings of resentment
among Nicaraguans.
Many believe justice can be bought, and many saw the killing as a symptom of an
invasion of foreigners seeking prime beachfront land.
The country's high court opened an inquiry, and removed a judge who had tossed
out charges against two former defendants and is reportedly being investigated
for corruption.
But the charges against Volz stuck. Nicaragua's news media have pilloried him -
failing to mention, in just one example, testimony Wednesday by a medical
examiner who found no evidence that Jiménez had been sexually assaulted.
After an initial court appearance in December in this small town, the
equivalent of a county seat, Volz and a US diplomat were attacked by a mob,
abandoned by police officers, and chased until they found safety in a
gymnasium.
The Managua daily, El Nuevo Diario printed the headline: "They almost lynch the
gringo implicated in murder."
Tortured trial
At the end of the trial's first day, Volz stood waiting on the plank floor of
the rustic courtroom as his private security team looked for the safest route
past about 100 townspeople protesting in the street. The crowd was yelling.
Some called police officers "the gringo's whores" for their protective
perimeter around building.
Volz's armed guards whisked him away safely in a large van, but the crowd
continued to vent. The murder victim's mother egged them on, sometimes in the
face of riot-equipped police.
She was also a government witness, testifying earlier her daughter told her she
feared Volz was going to kill her in a jealous rage.
She accused the US government of trying to influence the case, testifying that
an attorney for a previous co-defendant spoke only about Volz when offering her
$1 million to withdraw her accusations.
"I am not missing a million dollars. What I am missing is a daughter," she
proclaimed.
About 50 people were allowed into the courtroom, a fifth of them police
officers, one standing near the judge with his hand on the grip of an AK-47.
US embassy observers shook their heads in disbelief.
The prosecution's key witness, a surfer known around San Juan as a guy to go to
if you needed drugs, had been previously charged in the case. He didn't know
right from left and the judge snickered when he couldn't obey basic commands.
Volz's co-defendant, another local surfer and petty criminal, had initially
accused a second US citizen as well, but the young man was dropped from the
case after showing the prosecutor he was out of town when the killing occurred.
'I am innocent'
Volz also had alibi witnesses who testified they were on the phone with him or
with him in the capital city of Managua at the time of the killing.
He had suspicious scratches on his right shoulder after the crime, but he
testified they were abrasions from helping carry Jiménez's casket.
Arrested after her funeral, he was held in a Nicaraguan prison.
A judge, reportedly concerned for his safety, granted house arrest, to the
outrage of Nicaraguans who saw it as preferential treatment.
Volz didn't comment to the media during the trial, but at the end of closing
arguments Friday, he made a police final plea to the court in Spanish.
"I am not the killer," he said. "I am innocent. God knows it. Nicaragua is a
country with a lot of heart and I believe in its justice."
After the verdict, he was ordered back to prison, where he will join three
other Americans behind bars in this country, according to U.S Embassy
officials.
His mother, Maggie Anthony, declined to comment on the verdict, but a friend
said the family was devastated.
She said during a previous call from Nashville that Volz's family didn't attend
the trial out of safety concerns.
Nicaraguans generally don't trust their court system. US Ambassador Paul
Trivelli has said strengthening the judicial system is one of the most
important issues for the country's development.
Nicaraguans are also skeptical of American influence, which has marked the
country for a century.
"They want justice and there is no justice here in Nicaragua," a barefoot José
Tomás Rodriguez, 42, explained as he loaded a horse-drawn wagon with sacks of
fertilizer in the street after demonstrators dispersed earlier this week.
"We are calm people, but we don't like injustice," he said.
Volz's Nicaraguan co-defendant, however, doesn't draw the same jeers.
"The people can think of them differently, but with the judiciary authority
there isn't any difference and it will judge foreigners and nationals equally,"
said Ivette Toruño Blanco, the presiding state judge, in an interview.
Changing landscape
Like many foreigners, Volz was mesmerized by Latin America and made it his
home.
He's lived in Nicaragua the past two years, the last six months of which were
in the capital city of Managua. He is the publisher of a start-up magazine
called EP, which stands for el puente, the bridge, and promotes development
that respects the environment and communities.
The road from the capital to the coast passes through agrarian areas where
people toss hay onto ox carts with long forked branches rather than metal
pitchforks. Workers arrive to the day's labor by bicycle, sometimes peddling
past Caldwell Banker and Century 21 ads - in English for passing motorists.
The foreign investment coincides with a left turn in national politics, with
the election of former revolutionary leader Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista
Party.
Nicaragua is one of several Latin American countries that have shifted to the
left and have a "classic love-hate relationship" with the United States, said
Guy Poitras, a Trinity University political science professor.
"I think Latin Americans, which many are in support of United States investment
and United States economic ideas, also feel like the United States is not a
good neighbor anymore," Poitras said.
Foreigners discovered San Juan del Sur only in the past decade. The brick
streets, sandy beaches, and Internet cafes are full of adventuring youth and
retirees who sip rum and Cokes and Toña beer. Property prices range from
$10,000 to $50 million, a real estate manager said.
One expatriate complained Jiménez's death and the media frenzy that followed
could hurt development - but she also complained that San Juan was becoming too
American.
Many locals agreed that tourism has been a good source of income and
development but has brought more drug trafficking, more prostitution, more
property sold to the "gringos."
Gloria Elena Selva, 55, a primary school teacher satisfied with the verdict,
said Nicaraguans have lived here forever and endured unstable economies.
"Later, tourism arrives to the country and the authorities are too flexible
with the foreigners," she said, forming a fist in her hand and striking it
against the other to describe the trend as an "invasion."
