Stephen Sefton, Tortilla con Sal, February 5th 2020
On Februrary 4th an appeal hearing was held in the case of Orlando Enrique Tercero Moreno, convicted on November 15th 2019 of murdering Haley Anderson in Binghamton, New York on March 8th 2018.
Orlando Tercero's defense lawyer addresses the appeal court magistrates
On March 9th 2018, Tercero fled the US for Nicaragua, where he has citizenship, and was arrested on an international warrant by the Nicaraguan authorities on March 14th 2018. Although Tercero was born in Florida, he has Nicaraguan citizenship because his parents are Nicaraguan. Following his arrest, the US authorities requested his extradition to the US. But under Nicaraguan law, Nicaraguan citizens cannot be extradited to the United States. Nicaragua's Supreme Court rejected the extradition request on August 5th 2019. However, under Nicaragua's criminal law, crimes committed in other countries can be prosecuted in Nicaragua.
Orlando Tercero with his defense lawyer at the appeal court hearing
So Nicaragua's public prosecution service brought a case for murder against Tercero and the evidence from the US was presented via video conference, leading to his conviction for femicide. Tercero had known Haley Anderson for two years prior to her death in his apartment in March 2018. Friends of Anderson stated that Tercero had become obsessed with Anderson. At one point Anderson refused to press charges against Tercero for criminal damage to her car.
Haley Anderson
Before her death she made clear she was thinking to discontinue their relationship. The night of her murder, Anderson returned to Tercero's apartment with him after an evening out, during which she became inebriated. On the evidence presented, the court in Nicaragua found that Tercero asphyxiated Anderson that night in his apartment causing her death. The court sentenced Tercero to 30 years in prison. There is no death sentence in Nicaragua.
The case has been followed widely followed for several reasons. The family of Haley Anderson and the US authorities, as well as people generally in the US, have been anxious to see justice done. The case was heard at a time when the Nicaraguan government was being falsely accused of serious human rights abuses and when the Nicaraguan opposition and their foreign supporters have continued absurd accusations that in Nicaragua the incidence of femicide is disproportionately high. In fact, as the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean have pointed out, Nicaragua has the third lowest incidence of femicides in the whole of Latin America.
Tercero's trial has not only demonstrated the Nicaraguan authorities' commitment to elminating violence against women. The trial process has shown both Nicaragua's commitment to a relationship of respect and cooperation with the United States authorities and too the unquestionable transparency and respect for human rights of Nicaragua's criminal justice system.
This stands in marked contrast to the cynical hyprocisy of Nicaragua's opposition who have falsely claimed political prisoner status for hundreds of delinquents and criminals as part of their dishonest anti-government propaganda. Now various of those prisoners amnestied by the government as a result of opposition advocacy have reoffended, including alleged femicide Jeyson Castro Ortez, currently accused of savagely murdering his 24 year old female partner, Ruth Aburto Acevedo.
The Appeal Court hearing's presiding magistrate
Opening the appeal court hearing in the case of Orlando Tercero, the presiding magistrate welcomed the participants and asked the public prosecution service lawyers, as representatives of Haley Anderson and her family, if they were in communication with the family. The prosecution explained that they had been unable to communicate with the family immediately prior to the appeal hearing and pointed out that representatives from the US embassy were present. The court welcomed the two US embassy representatives and requested that they identify themselves, which they did. A number of local and US journalists were present, including a team from the CBS network led by well know presenter Maria Elena Salinas.
US Embassy representatives at the appeal hearing
Subsequently, during the first part of the hearing, Tercero's defense lawyer made two requests to the appeal court asking for more information, from both Nicaragua's Institute of Legal Medicine and from the teaching hospital in León, which the defense claimed had not been made available to the defense. The public prosecutor argued against those requests being granted. For her part, the presiding magistrate ruled that the defense requests were inopportune and not pertinent to the case.
During the second part of the two hour hearing, the defense argued six points turning on technicalities which the defense argued could make it possible for Tercero to avail of mitigating circumstances relating to his psychological state at the time of the murder. The defense also alleged procedural irregularities in terms of the kind of court in which the trial was heard and in terms of the nature of the accusation of femicide. Much of the defense lawyer's arguments turned on alleged significant differences between US law and Nicaraguan law.
The public prosecutor addresses the court
In response the public prosecutor explained systematically why each of the six points argued by the defense were inadmissible. His exposition covered the relevant procedural norms of Nicaragua's criminal law, the jurisprudence affecting the case and also the relevant international law based on bilateral treaties between the US and Nicaragua and other international legal instruments ratified by Nicaragua.
Once the defense and prosecution had finished their respective presentations the presiding magistrate asked Tercero if he wanted to address the court, explaining to him it was his right to do so but that if he chose not to that would not prejudice his appeal. Tercero declined. The presiding magistrate then concluded the hearing, stating that she and her fellow appeal court magistrates would consider the defense and prosecution oral arguments and written submissions and issue a resolution accordingly.
Orlando Tercero talks with his mother
During the hearing, Tercero's mother was allowed to sit by her son. Once the hearing was declared over, he asked permision to talk with and embrace his mother, to which the magistrates agreed. Tercero was then escorted out of the court. The magistrates are expected to issue their resolution on Tercero's appeal within the next couple of weeks.