Accused ''Joe Cool'' killer to plead guilty

[Jack Hexter]

Accused ''Joe Cool'' killer to plead guilty, likely closing the sensational case

Posted on Thu, Jul. 17, 2008

An Arkansas man accused of fatally shooting four Miami Beach charter boat members on the high seas indicated in a court motion filed Thursday that he plans to change his plea to guilty on July 28 - closing the book on the sensational case.

Kirby Archer, 36, was charged along with Guillermo Zarabozo, 20, of Hialeah, with the four slayings after they chartered the Miami Beach sport fishing boat, Joe Cool, for a one-way trip to Bimini last September.

Among those murdered were the boat captain, his wife, his half brother and the first mate.

Archer's defense lawyer, Allan Kaiser, declined to comment about the filing.

Archer had initially pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder charges. The Justice Department is still deciding whether to pursue the death penalty in the case, which could still happen even if Archer pleads guilty and his codefendant, Zarabozo, stands trial.

''Guillermo Zarabozo continues to maintain his innocence and he plans to proceed to trial,'' said one of his attorneys, William Matthewman said.

Prosecutors say the two defendants intended to go to Cuba, where Archer wanted to hide from a fugitive arrest warrant charging him with stealing $92,000 from Wal-Mart.

After Zarabozo and Archer were rescued at sea, both told federal agents that Cuban hijackers killed the charter boat crew and later let the two men go free.

But Zarabozo said in a major court statement filed in May that Archer used Zarabozo's gun to kill the four victims, before dumping their bodies into the Atlantic Ocean. That admission reinforced a similar story Zarabozo had told an inmate at the Federal Detention Center in Miami just weeks after the slayings.

The victims -- Jake Branam, 27; his wife, Kelley Branam, 30; Branam's half-brother, Scott Gamble, 35; and first mate Samuel Kairy, 27, all of Miami Beach -- were never found. The Branams left behind a then 2-year-old daughter and a 4-month-old son.

The government's case, which was expected to go to trial later this summer or fall, was viewed at first as mainly circumstantial because it lacked the victims' bodies, murder weapons or other direct evidence to link the slayings to Zarabozo and Archer.

[Questsportfishing]

it must take a heartless person! (in this case 2..).. these people were just like all of us here , they loved to fish and loved to travel and see port on the way home where thier family and friends were. I hope someday family and friends find peace and understanding with the way things can happen.. "on the water you will find the best and the worst people." I do wish I had never had to hear that when I was young but it was and is still true.

[shoefish]

I hope that this can bring some closure to the nightmare that these families must be living. RIP to the crew, and I hope that the two murderers get what's rightfully coming to them.

[Bert Rodgers]

Too bad the coast gaurd didn't leave them in the water. At least FL isn't too pussified to pursue the death penalty.

Bert

[floridadeckie]

giving him the death penalty is the easy way out. they to drag him down to the miami charter docks, bind his hands and hobble his feet, and let those crews have a go at him.

[Randy Stinchcomb]

finally, some closure for the family
I hope that "dirt-bag" gets the chair

[PHILLYFISHING]

take them out to the sharking grounds.. put as much chum in the water to start a feeding frenzy and push him in.. with pices of fishingwired threw his flesh... then just leave him there as he screams