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Wanted: Twelve people who can take four months off and who do not hesitate to judge a man who is considered the most notorious criminal of the twenty-first century. Payment: about $ 40 a day.
It is always difficult to choose a jury, but it is even more difficult when the defendant is Joaquín Loera Guzmán, former head of the drug cartel for Sinaloa, charged with drug smuggling and having participated in at least 30 murders .
Mr. Guzman – known around the world as El Chapo – is such a frightening character that at the beginning of the year, the judge in the case decided that the jury would remain anonymous and would be escorted every day by United for his safety . Marshal states.
[[[[Learn more about unusual security measures used at trial.]
Nevertheless, jury selection having started on Monday at the Brooklyn District Federal Court, things went smoothly, with potential jurors appearing to show little fear of the man sitting in front of them. , silent but watchful, dressed in a navy blue suit and a pristine white. shirt that was open to his sternum.
Among the questions regarding their opinions on marijuana, their feelings about law enforcement and their command of Spanish, only one said she was afraid of Mr. Guzman. Another admitted that the words "El Chapo" made him think mostly of a bagel sandwich served by a deli near his workplace and bearing the name of the accused. A third spent most of his time while he was questioned about his imitation work of Michael Jackson.
Many jurors said they recognized Mr. Guzman's name and at least heard that it was an international pillar that had escaped famously from two Mexican jails. Of the 46 people polled Monday by Judge Brian M. Cogan, 17 were fired, most of them because they said they were not being fair to Mr. Guzman or because the long trial would cause financial difficulties.
The security was extremely close. The courthouse was guarded by marshals, local justice officials, a bomb-sniffing dog and a tactical team heavily armed with police officers from New York City. Such precautions apparently upset a potential juror, who admitted that the prospect of Mr. Guzman's fate made her feel "in danger".
"What scares me, is that I've read that his family will come after the jurors and their families," said the woman. She added that she knew that Mr. Guzman had two sons still on the run. When a defense attorney asked her if that made her nervous, she admitted that was the case.
Several potential jurors said they knew Mr. Guzman from Netflix's "El Chapo" series or had seen his page on Wikipedia, but they seemed largely unaware of the fact that he had been charged nearly ten years ago to have run a criminal enterprise smuggling cocaine and drugs. Heroin in the United States from Mexico in a rotating fleet of cars, trucks, yachts, airplanes and submarines. Guzman is also accused of protecting his empire murdering – or ordering the death of – dozens of people.
[[[[Read about some of the witnesses who are supposed to testify.]
The pleadings are scheduled to start next Tuesday, assuming that a jury has been chosen. Prosecutors are expected to tell the story of Mr. Guzman's story from a marijuana-growing teenager to a ruthless pillar who would have bought Mexican officials and often delivered a gold-plated assault rifle. The jury will probably also have heard of its two daring jailbreaks – one, at least according to tradition, while it was hidden in a laundry basket and the other by a long tunnel of One kilometer that his associates dug in the shower of his cell.
But facts that make one think about the heart of the case do not prevent the selection of the jury from going sometimes to the absurd. After all, the juror noted that his local charcuterie had a sandwich called "El Chapo".
William Purpura, one of Guzman's lawyers, wanted to explore this coincidence by asking exactly what the sandwich was made of. The man explained that it was a bagel with cream cheese, capers and lox.
"I do not know why it's called" El Chapo, "he says, but it's delicious.
