First trial for remaining Cash Feenz suspects likely in September
By KATHLEEN CULLINAN
Originally published 1:44 p.m., Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Updated 5:58 p.m., Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Never mind him switching sides. Cody Roux has something to say that his old friends are happy to hear.
It apparently came up well before he pleaded out of the so-called Cash Feenz murder case, agreeing in January to serve 14 years behind bars and testify against those very friends at trial. One of the original nine suspects indicted in the 2006 shooting of two teenagers in Cape Coral, Roux is the latest to reach a plea agreement and become a state’s witness.
He had already given prosecutors his account of the killings. Once Roux’s plea was final, the state handed over copies to the remaining defendants. Something in that statement, perhaps some piece of his memory of the birthday party where Alexis Sosa, 18, and his 14-year-old nephew, Jeffrey, were tortured and shot to death, evidently favored the defense.
Attorney David Brener, calling Roux’s statement “potentially helpful,” dropped his earlier objection to its public release.
Representing alleged ringleader Kemar Johnston, Brener said this new information from Roux also means he’ll have to interview several witnesses all over again.
Precisely what Roux said was left out of the afternoon court hearing. Assistant State Attorney Marie Doerr declined to release it to reporters. But the potential impact of his words came up along with other housekeeping issues in the case.
A total of 10 people have been charged in the attack on the Sosas, whose bodies were found near the burned wreckage of their Lexus in an industrial lot. The group had allegedly dubbed themselves the Cash Feenz.
One suspect, 19-year-old Ashley Toye, was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder, among other things, last year at trial.
A state court last month rejected Toye’s appeal. She is serving life in prison.
Roux and two others — Melissa Rivera, 21, and Iriana Santos, 17 — also pleaded guilty to kidnapping and accessory charges last year in exchange for reduced sentences. They received 20 and 25 years respectively.
Of the remaining six, including one arrested just this year, several indicted on first-degree murder charges would face the death penalty if convicted.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Judge Thomas Reese said he expects the first of the defendants to go to trial in September.
Brener said he plans to travel out of the country in the meantime, looking for people who knew Johnston as a child in preparation for a penalty phase should the 21-year-old be found guilty.
Speaking after court, Brener said he found it “curious” that the state would refuse to give reporters Roux’s statement while they have released other accounts that were more damning to Johnston, in particular.
State attorney’s spokeswoman Samantha Syoen said an earlier order from Reese bars the state from giving out any of the defendants’ statements.
Asked whether he expects any of the rest of Johnston’s co-defendants to plead out and become witnesses for the state, Brener said it’s always a possibility.
Roux, meanwhile, has been transferred to the Charlotte County Jail and was initially put in solitary confinement there, according to a motion his attorney filed last month. He’s not due to be sentenced until Dec. 1. In the motion, which was granted, Roux asked the court to let him into the general population.