WEBVTT - Part 6: The Defense 0:00:01.400 --> 0:00:06.880 July is a critical day in the story of Berta 0:00:06.920 --> 0:00:13.440 Cassarus and David Castile. Here's what we know happened. A 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:17.800 security guard at the Ahwa Zarka Damn's work site shot 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:22.240 and killed the protester from Copeene, the indigenous rights group 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:26.200 led by Berta. If you're David, the CEO of the 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:29.720 company behind the damn, you know this is a crisis. 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:34.280 The damn has already attracted controversy. Depending on how the 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:39.440 press reports it, this could make things much worse. Here's 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.360 what else we know. That same day, David sends a 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:47.680 text message to his colleagues Adessa, his company. He tells 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:52.559 them pay the reporter from h H h H is 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:56.640 a Honduran cable news network. David instructs his colleagues to 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:00.240 offer the reporter two thousand lympiras, which is about out 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:05.080 eighty dollars today. And those two bits of information that 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:08.280 someone was killed and that David wanted to pay a 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:12.920 reporter are the only two facts in this instance that 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:19.160 investigators and David can seemingly agree on. If you're the 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:23.520 team investigating David, this looks like a bribe, an attempt 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:26.640 to spend the incident and provide cover for the project. 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:32.800 H H didn't respond to a request for comments, but 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:36.880 David says his company did make that payment and that 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:43.480 there was nothing wrong with it. Generalists local generalists do 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:49.080 not have funds to be able to travel far away normally, 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:52.960 they don't have few to be able to go to 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:59.520 remote places um even more sound development amountain. David argues 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:04.200 that the testers, not the company's security guards, had incited 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:07.960 the violence that day, and unless he covered a local 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:12.040 journalist's expenses to come to the area, no one in 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.960 Honduras would ever hear his side of the story. In 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:20.280 his version, this wasn't a breach of ethics. It was 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:25.239 a public service. We wanted the news. We wanted the 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:29.440 people of Honduras to know exactly what was going on, 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:33.960 what was happening, what we were being victims of during 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.880 this time. The debate over the meaning of this text 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.160 might seem like a side note in the Berte Cathros 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:46.440 murder case, but investigators say it's important that it helps 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:50.840 establish a pattern where Dessa used influence and money to 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:54.760 twist institutions to their will. They say it was part 0:02:54.760 --> 0:03:00.120 of Dessa's corporate culture, and messages like that support or 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:06.200 other even more important texts conversations that prosecutors say directly 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:11.680 tie David Castillo to the murder plot itself. But David 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:16.440 will attempt to explain every one of these seemingly incriminating texts. 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:20.320 We're going to explore some of the most crucial exchanges 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:24.000 in this episode. This will give us a glimpse into 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:28.280 a big part of his defense, because ultimately, so much 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:32.840 could rest on how he explains them and whether a 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:45.400 judge finds his counter narrative convincing. I'm monte Reel for 0:03:45.440 --> 0:04:20.800 Bloomberg Green and this is Blood River. The text exchange 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:24.600 we're going to start with involves messages sent between David 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:29.640 and Douglas Bustillo, and before we get into the messages themselves, 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:32.880 it's important to say a little bit about the relationship 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:38.520 between these two men and the timing of this exchange. Bustillo, 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:42.400 if you recall, was the former security chief for Deessa 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:46.640 at the Agua Zarca work site, and this particular exchange 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:51.960 of messages happened in November. That's right around the time 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:57.039 when Berta and Copeene resumed their protests against the damn. 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.400 Now it might seem strange that the two men, David 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:06.039 and Bustillo, would have any correspondence at all around that time. 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:12.760 That's because months earlier, in July, David actually had fired 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:16.680 Boustillo as his head of security at Awa Zarca, and 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:19.560 he says one of the reasons he did it was 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:25.599 because Berta asked him to. Berta asked me personally to 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:29.640 fire Bustio from from the project site, and when I 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:34.760 found a chance due to poor behavior and lack of 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:38.320 judgment from from Mr Bustio, he was He was fired 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:44.279 sometime around July of two thousand. He got caught drunk 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:50.880 driving Andy company vehicle, which was unacceptable to us. So 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:54.080 fast forward a few months from that firing to the 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:59.040 fall of Bustillo is no longer working for David, at 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:02.560 least not a ficially, but the text show that David 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.920 and Boustillo are still in touch and they're still working 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:11.520 together on something. That November, Boustillo sends a message to David, 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:16.360 one that prosecutors alleged is very important. It's the one 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:23.839 where Boustillo asked David about the quote. Investigators have alleged 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:28.440 that these messages refer to payments made by David or 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:33.200 his company to Bustillo, and that the payments are connected 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:38.640 to the plot to kill Berta. In this message, Bustillo 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:46.360 greets David by name and writes in Spanish. As it's typed, 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:53.240 that translates literally as a request complete. A smoother translation 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:58.919 might be give me the David responds, telling Bostio to 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:02.120 meet him at a Lee's restaurant in a shopping mall. 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:08.000 Investigators believe Bustillo is asking for a payment half of 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:10.400 the money that he's owed for helping to plan the 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:14.240 murder and to hire the hitman. They say one of 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:18.520 Bustillo's bank accounts shows a deposit of about four thousand 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:26.840 dollars shortly before this call. Roxanna Athols is one of 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:30.800 the members of the investigating team put together by Berta's family. 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:35.800 She says the timing of these messages is important. It's November. 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:40.560 This is the same month when Berta and Copeine resumed 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:45.320 their protests at the Gualcarque River against Dessa. This is 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:48.920 after more than a year of relative calm at the site, 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:54.080 and when Davi Costillo realizes Da Copin is going to 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:57.960 continue to oppose the damn project um. We think. Also 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:00.000 in November of two thousand fifty is when the murder, 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.880 the plot we canst take shape to kill her. So 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:09.320 how does David explain these messages where Boustillo asked him 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:16.000 for the Well, it starts with a typo. Boustillo wrote 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:21.240 the word again as written in Spanish, it's a command. 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.480 But if you put an accent mark on the last 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:29.239 letter of the word, the meaning changes. With an accent mark, 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:32.760 the word would not be a command, it would be 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:41.320 a statement, would mean I completed. Boustillo did not put 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:45.360 an accent mark on that word, but David says he 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:49.360 meant to. It's just that when you're typing texts, you're 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:54.640 not so careful with punctuation. So David says he understood 0:08:55.000 --> 0:09:01.440 the text from Boustillo to mean I completed. In other words, 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:05.840 Boustillo was saying he'd finished half of a job he 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:13.800 was supposed to do. Remember, David had already fired Bustillo, 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:19.439 but he says he realized Boustillo could still be of service. 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:23.680 David says no one knew the copine protesters in Rio 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:28.360 Blanco better than Boustillo, his former head of security. He 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:33.400 had lived among those protesters for years. David says, Bustillo's 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:38.400 job that November was to convince two local residents, men 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:42.719 who had previously always been aligned with Copinge against Dessa, 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:47.400 to come to the other side to work with the company. 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:51.160 So we had asked Bustillo that he knew them to 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:57.839 recruit them. Refers to that he had recruited one of them. 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:05.040 He had completed what we had requested from him, David says. 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:10.400 The second potential recruit never panned out, So that is 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:15.960 the context surrounding the message. Tausto says, I have completed 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:20.880 the work of It has nothing to do with funding. 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:27.720 So David dismisses this entire exchange as meaningless. It was 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:32.720 all about a recruiting drive, a misinterpretation that started with 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:45.760 a missing accent mark. This brings us to another important 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:51.239 text string again. This one is between David and Douglas Bustillo. 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:56.280 It takes place a couple of months later in February, 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:59.959 about a month before Barton's actual murder in early Mark 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:04.520 ch So what we think happened in early February was 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:09.360 there is an effort to kill Berta. Roxanna says this 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:12.560 was the failed effort to kill her, an attempt that 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:15.760 was abandoned when the would be killers saw that Berta's 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:19.400 daughters were with her at the house. Immediately after that, 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:25.320 Boustillo sent another message to David. He says, Mission aborta 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:32.520 Mission aborted bias for lack of resources. David says that 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:36.920 this mission had nothing to do with Berta. He says 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:39.920 that Boustillo's still doing work for him now and then 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:44.320 at this point, and not just around Rio Blanco. In fact, 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:49.160 David says that by February, he was considering hiring Bustillo 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:53.040 as a security manager for a solar project he was 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:57.760 developing in another region completely separate from the Ahwa Zarca site. 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:02.120 He says there was a substation connected to that solar 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:06.160 project that had been taken over by gangs. The site 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:10.920 was effectively held for ransom. David says he wanted Boustillo 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:15.120 to visit that solar site to do some reconnaissance and 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:18.199 to figure out how many security guards would be needed 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:23.480 to secure the place, but Bostio had to abandon that visit. 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.000 He could not travel to the project on that a 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:30.280 specific date. He was going to travel at a later date. 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:38.320 Mission aborted again. David says investigators simply misinterpreted the meaning 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:43.480 of the texts, he and Boustillo weren't focused on murdering Berta. 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:49.480 He says they were preoccupied with a solar project. David 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.200 says this explains a message that he sent to Boustillo. 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:59.599 He wrote, quote, remember the accidents and the scene. I 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:01.920 think if you look at that text in the context 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:05.520 of the plan, it means clean up after yourself. At 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:09.240 least that's the way I would interpret it. But David 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:12.240 says this was a reference to the incident that led 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:16.920 him to fire Boustillo from Deessa. Months before the drunk 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:21.760 driving incident, David says Bustillo had made a scene in 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:26.120 the town square where he wrecked his vehicle. David says 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:30.480 he was reminding Bustillo of that unfortunate event before he 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.400 made his trip to visit the solar plant in the 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:37.319 town of Choluteca. That's why we were not going to 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:42.280 provide or allow him to drive any vehicles from from 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:46.040 from this and when he was going to go to Chotea. So, 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:51.120 David says that exchange, which prosecutors say supports their theory 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:56.680 of the aborted murder attempt, was also completely unrelated to Berta. 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:03.120 But there's a complicating factor here. Investigators know that around 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:07.280 the same time Boustillo was in contact with David, Boustillo 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:12.520 was also in contact with Mariano Diaz. He's the military 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:16.760 officer whose phone coincidentally was tapped as part of a 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:22.880 drug and kidnapping investigation. Prosecutors say Diaz was also helping 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:29.520 coordinate the murder. Additionally, both Diaz and Boustillo were in 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:34.480 direct contact with a guy named Henry Hernantez. Hernandez was 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:37.760 arrested as one of the hitman who had broken into 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.400 Berta's house the night of the murder. Police had used 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:45.239 cell phone data to place him there at her subdivision 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:50.280 on that night, and later Hernandez admitted to being there. 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:53.600 He didn't say he killed Barton. He claimed he was 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:57.360 essentially dragged there against his will by the other hitman, 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:03.160 whom he implicated. So, why, when Boostillo is supposed to 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:06.800 be working with David on a solar project, is he 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:11.480 talking to Mariano Diaz and Henry Hernandez at the same time, 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:15.960 And why a week before all of that was Boustillo 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:21.240 himself in Berta's subdivision taking pictures of her house, and 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:24.880 according to phone data, he'd return there again about a 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:29.960 week before the actual murder. David says he doesn't know 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:33.240 why Boustillo was doing any of that when he was 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:37.360 supposed to be concentrating on a solar project. He doesn't 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:40.840 know why Bustillo had been in contact through the time 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:45.640 of the actual murder with marian o'diaz or Henry Hernandez. 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:49.880 David says he only knows it had nothing to do 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:56.240 with him or his company. No, Montitez has absolutely nothing 0:15:56.280 --> 0:16:01.800 to do with has absolutely nothing to do with the 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:05.880 work we had requested. Was teal to do the conversations 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:10.160 that was we're heavy, if they were a parallel, if 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:15.440 he was addressing any issues with either Bodeano or others, 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:19.840 were totally unrelated to us, and we had known ledge about. 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:41.440 Many of David's critics say his explanation of the text 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:45.560 to Boostello reveal a pattern. They say David wrote to 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:50.800 him in a coded language designed to obscure meaning, and 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:53.840 they also argue that his friendly text to bear to 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:58.040 herself were part of a similar strategy that at the 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:01.560 same time that he was plotting her murder, he was 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:06.520 protecting himself and planting the seeds for his future defense. 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.679 Billy Kite used to work for Global Witness, a London 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:17.680 based human rights organization. In November, he was in Honduras 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:22.399 preparing a report about violence against activists. He met with 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:26.240 Berta then. This was around the same time that David 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:32.280 and Bustillo were exchanging the fifty texts. Also, at this time, 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:36.280 David was offering to pay for Berta's mother's medical care. 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:42.000 Billy kept notes about his conversation with Berta. He says 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:46.439 David Castillo was a topic of discussion. She said to 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:51.720 me that he would often call her um, always with 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:55.639 a fake, kind of you know, friendly tone, wanted to 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.840 be her friend. The text that David's team has produced 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:03.560 show that David and Berta were exchanging messages in the 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:07.680 days before Billy met with her. David says he sent 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:11.520 assistance to the medical officers where her mother was being 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:16.159 treated to pay some of those costs. Billie says bert 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:21.040 To suspected David was trying to bribe her. She told 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.439 me that two days previously, when when I when I 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:26.080 met her so Monday, the I think it was the 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:31.239 second of November, he had called her again a kind 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:34.320 of familiar tone, and then he offered her a bribe 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.680 to to stop her her activism. Um so the exact 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:39.560 words and these are from my notes from that day, 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:43.879 where so let's come to an agreement. It is what 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:45.840 that she she told me that he had said to 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:48.160 her on that phone call on the second of November. 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:51.639 And obviously she told me she she refused, she wasn't 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:55.400 by any means a friend of de Wiksti or she 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:58.840 she knew the games that he was he was playing. 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:01.200 She knew that he was the one who who was 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:05.560 putting the strings with David and jail. Dessa's defense team 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:10.400 hired Amsterdam and Partners, law firm based in London and Washington, 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:15.600 d C. One of its specialties is crisis management. Previous 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:21.360 clients have included prime ministers, the internet entrepreneur Kim dot Com, 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:26.040 and even the Turkish government. The firm published a report 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:31.200 defending Dessa and attacking Copine. It was titled the War 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:37.240 on Development Exposing the Copine disinformation campaign surrounding the Berta 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:42.560 Cassarus case in Honduras. Robert Amsterdam, the head of the firm, 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:46.000 posted a video on his Twitter feed about eight months 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.480 after David was arrested. He argued that it would make 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:53.120 no sense for Dessa to be involved with Berta's murder. 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:57.200 He said everyone at the company had known that violence 0:19:57.359 --> 0:19:59.879 was the one thing they could have sunk their hydro 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:04.879 electric project, because they learned that lesson in when the 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:08.080 protester was shot by the security guard at the work site. 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:13.680 There was absolutely no business motive for murdering Castras, because 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:17.719 when one protester was killed by a member of the 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:21.800 army a year before, that had stopped the project. So 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:26.359 it would be very clear Todessa that any involvement with 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.560 respect to Berta would have ended the project Number one 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:34.320 number two. On the day of her death, a journalist 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:37.560 has stated that he spoke to Berta and she was 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:42.120 worried about a threat she received from a mining company 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:46.960 Amsterdam is referring to texts bear To exchanged with a 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:52.320 Swiss journalist. This happened on March second, about five and 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:56.080 a half hours before she was killed. The journalist was 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:59.480 working on a project about mining. He asked her, if 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:02.119 he might is that the areas where she worked to 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:07.919 take pictures of mining impacts. Bear To responded, here, we 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:11.679 have not allowed mining company's entry. Then she followed that 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:16.520 with there are serious threats, very serious. We know the topic. 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:21.800 We can talk. David's defense team believes this text exchange 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:26.840 illustrates an important point. Berta had made lots of enemies 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:34.080 throughout lots of industries. Berta's backers do not believe Berta 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:37.360 was referring to a specific threat on her life from 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:41.800 a specific company. When Berta spoke of the Ahwazarka dam, 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:44.840 she often warned that it might be a gateway for mining. 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:48.159 She put it this way, If the dam were built, 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:52.520 its electricity wouldn't benefit the locals. It was more likely 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:56.280 to benefit mining companies who would use the power to 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:01.760 move into the region. David's team argues the texts raised 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:07.240 the possibility of other suspects, suspects that never were seriously considered, 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:13.080 they say, because investigators were determined to blame Dessa. David's 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:18.119 lawyers claimed the messages had been purposefully hidden by prosecutors 0:22:18.400 --> 0:22:23.240 who didn't flag them as being significant. David's defense team, however, 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:28.040 labeled Berta's text to that journalist as being of quote 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:34.520 transcendental importance. David's team, in fact, has tried to prove 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:39.080 that all of the prosecution's phone data, the text messages, 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:44.200 what'sapp chats, should carry no weight in court. They say 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:48.359 the state's lead forensic technician, the person who extracted the 0:22:48.480 --> 0:22:52.879 data from the phones, was biased, that she didn't follow 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:58.960 proper technical protocols. This has become a cornerstone of David's defense. 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:06.800 When we saw her report, we noticed inconsistencies that we 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:10.680 knew they were not true, and you will be surprised 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:14.600 that we have found out more evidence that she has 0:23:14.640 --> 0:23:21.560 manipulated more phone calls and more phone data. David's lawyers 0:23:21.720 --> 0:23:25.720 contended in court last year the message strings from different 0:23:25.880 --> 0:23:30.000 chat groups got mixed together, and so they say the 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:35.120 court was given transcripts where unrelated messages appear as if 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:39.159 they flow together, and when transcribing a few of the 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:44.080 chat strings, the lawyers say the prosecution omitted messages that 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:47.399 were part of those conversations. They gave a couple of 0:23:47.400 --> 0:23:52.720 examples in a court filing. The most significant involved the 0:23:52.800 --> 0:23:58.720 WhatsApp conversation from October, about five months before Bart's murder. 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:05.560 Sergie Rodriguez, Dessa's environmental and social manager, wrote to David 0:24:06.080 --> 0:24:10.560 and other Dessa employees. In the message, Sergio refers to 0:24:10.640 --> 0:24:14.960 Berta and to Thomas Gomez, one of her colleagues with Copine. 0:24:15.920 --> 0:24:20.960 Sergio wrote, Obviously, as long as Thomas and Berta don't arrive, 0:24:21.480 --> 0:24:25.960 the movement weakens and there is little mobilization power. We 0:24:26.160 --> 0:24:32.399 thus must also direct actions against them. Prosecutors highlighted this 0:24:32.480 --> 0:24:35.840 message because it comes right at the time Copeine was 0:24:36.000 --> 0:24:41.200 ramping up protests against Dessa. David's lawyers say the DEASA 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:46.760 employees exchanged additional messages eleven days later in the same chat. 0:24:47.720 --> 0:24:52.560 Those messages refer to a lawyer. The defense says that 0:24:52.640 --> 0:24:58.840 proves the actions Sergio was suggesting were legal actions, not violence. 0:25:04.400 --> 0:25:08.840 David's defense team also argues that the government's technical expert 0:25:09.200 --> 0:25:13.600 changed the dates of messages to frame him. The example 0:25:13.640 --> 0:25:16.800 of this David gave me was that string of messages 0:25:16.880 --> 0:25:22.080 between him and Douglas Bustillo, the one from November, around 0:25:22.080 --> 0:25:28.240 the time that prosecutors Saydessa began plotting Berta's murder. This 0:25:28.359 --> 0:25:32.480 is that fifty percent text Bustillo sent to David, the 0:25:32.600 --> 0:25:36.840 one prosecutors say referred to a payment. They say Boustillo 0:25:37.000 --> 0:25:39.840 was asking David to pay him half of what was 0:25:39.880 --> 0:25:45.720 owed for arranging the preliminary murder plans. David told me 0:25:45.840 --> 0:25:51.399 that investigators presented those messages as unfolding, not in November, 0:25:52.960 --> 0:25:59.400 but in February. She lied, did not happen in in 0:25:59.400 --> 0:26:04.800 in February. This really confused me. I had seen those 0:26:04.840 --> 0:26:09.240 texts referred to several times, and every time I'd seen them, 0:26:09.280 --> 0:26:12.960 they clearly were labeled as having taken place in November, 0:26:13.280 --> 0:26:18.720 not in February. In fact, the November date seemed central 0:26:19.000 --> 0:26:23.000 to the narrative that Guy Pay and the State had reconstructed. 0:26:23.680 --> 0:26:27.120 They argued that David and the others had begun planning 0:26:27.119 --> 0:26:32.680 the murder in November. That's when COPINE resumed its protests, 0:26:33.160 --> 0:26:37.800 and it's when David and Bustillo had exchanged that string 0:26:37.840 --> 0:26:41.840 of messages. In February was the time of the failed 0:26:41.920 --> 0:26:47.440 murder attempt, when the mission aboarded texts came. I told 0:26:47.520 --> 0:26:51.719 David that I had examined that string and I couldn't 0:26:51.720 --> 0:26:55.400 find anything that suggested that prosecutors had changed the date 0:26:55.800 --> 0:27:01.040 from November to February. But I and I looked at it, 0:27:01.040 --> 0:27:06.160 it says that it was from November. Well, in one 0:27:06.200 --> 0:27:10.919 report they changed the date and it was presented as 0:27:10.960 --> 0:27:16.639 if it was in February. So I looked again and 0:27:16.680 --> 0:27:19.639 I found an example of what he was talking about 0:27:20.440 --> 0:27:25.239 when he was indicted. Prosecutors presented a summary description of 0:27:25.280 --> 0:27:29.320 the facts to the court. It says the original planning 0:27:29.480 --> 0:27:33.720 was in November, but that in quote the months of 0:27:33.840 --> 0:27:40.200 January and February Boustillo asked David to make a fifty 0:27:40.680 --> 0:27:46.679 advance on payment agreed to that was wrong. Later the 0:27:46.760 --> 0:27:50.040 correct date was attached to those texts, but not here. 0:27:51.000 --> 0:27:53.879 This might seem like a minor point, but David and 0:27:53.920 --> 0:27:58.360 his defense team argue that these sorts of discrepancies add up. 0:27:59.200 --> 0:28:03.199 The foundation of the prosecution's case is the presentation and 0:28:03.280 --> 0:28:08.159 interpretation of text messages. David's lawyers argue that if the 0:28:08.200 --> 0:28:13.200 prosecution can't be trusted to correctly handle and interpret that evidence, 0:28:13.800 --> 0:28:16.639 how can any part of the case against him stand? 0:28:17.960 --> 0:28:21.639 And all of this underscores a strange aspect of this case. 0:28:22.520 --> 0:28:26.639 Both the victim's family and the defense have argued that 0:28:26.680 --> 0:28:31.440 the Honduran justice system can't be trusted the justice is 0:28:31.480 --> 0:28:36.240 in shaky hands. Both have said the state, at various 0:28:36.280 --> 0:28:40.000 points in the process, has made a mess of the case. 0:28:41.360 --> 0:28:45.800 The Honduran Public Prosecutor's office denies the family's claims that 0:28:45.880 --> 0:28:50.840 police mishandled the investigation and that court proceedings have been corrupted, 0:28:52.120 --> 0:28:55.360 but the court case against David practically ground to a 0:28:55.400 --> 0:28:58.840 halt for more than a year. One reason is David's 0:28:58.840 --> 0:29:03.160 defense team has ald appeals arguing the text messages were manipulated. 0:29:03.920 --> 0:29:08.440 Those proceedings repeatedly delayed the preliminary hearing the determines if 0:29:08.440 --> 0:29:12.720 his case will go to trial. With each delay, the 0:29:12.760 --> 0:29:18.200 demands for justice from Artes supporters grew louder. Under Honduran law, 0:29:18.560 --> 0:29:20.680 a person cannot be held for more than two and 0:29:20.680 --> 0:29:25.200 a half years without going to trial. For David, that 0:29:25.320 --> 0:29:30.840 deadline expires on September two of this year. Vertas family 0:29:30.880 --> 0:29:34.400 says the defenses appeals have all been part of a 0:29:34.480 --> 0:29:40.320 strategy delay the process, run out the clock and allowed 0:29:40.400 --> 0:29:47.680 David to be released from custody. David denies this. He 0:29:47.760 --> 0:29:51.000 says he hopes for a fair trial, but doesn't accept 0:29:51.080 --> 0:29:55.000 the idea that government investigators have acted in good faith. 0:29:55.640 --> 0:29:58.240 He says they've had two and a half years to 0:29:58.280 --> 0:30:02.120 put together a case against him, and holding him indefinitely 0:30:02.840 --> 0:30:28.000 violates his rights. Were institutions sometimes delivered weak results. The 0:30:28.120 --> 0:30:31.040 first test of the Honduran justice system in the bar 0:30:31.120 --> 0:30:34.600 Te Cassarus case came with the trials of several men 0:30:34.960 --> 0:30:39.680 who were arrested nearly two years before David. They included 0:30:39.840 --> 0:30:43.120 four accused hitmen and a couple of people with ties 0:30:43.160 --> 0:30:48.120 to Dessa. One was Sergio Rodriguez, the AWA's ARCA Projects, 0:30:48.320 --> 0:30:53.600 environmental and social manager. Another was Douglass Bustillo, the former 0:30:53.640 --> 0:30:57.440 security chief accused of plotting the crime with David and 0:30:57.480 --> 0:31:02.520 the others. Seraghi O had denied all involvement, starting with 0:31:02.560 --> 0:31:07.880 the allegations that he threatened Berta. Multiple witnesses from Copeine 0:31:08.040 --> 0:31:12.880 had said Sergio had threatened Berta during a specific protest 0:31:13.640 --> 0:31:18.720 and at another one in early Sergio insisted his interaction 0:31:18.760 --> 0:31:21.800 with Berta at one of the protests was friendly and 0:31:21.800 --> 0:31:25.240 that he hadn't even been at the other one. In fact, 0:31:25.720 --> 0:31:30.080 Sergio's lawyers presented cell phone and credit card records showing 0:31:30.160 --> 0:31:33.720 he'd been into Gooseigalpa, hours away from the Damn site 0:31:34.120 --> 0:31:39.240 at the time of that particular demonstration. His defense showed 0:31:39.280 --> 0:31:42.920 that there were no financial transactions that could be traced 0:31:42.960 --> 0:31:48.600 between him, Ordessa, and the other accused co conspirators, and 0:31:48.680 --> 0:31:52.920 Sergio's telephone experts argued that the evidence clearly showed that 0:31:52.960 --> 0:31:56.400 he had not been in contact with Mariano Diaz, the 0:31:56.440 --> 0:32:01.240 military officer charged with plotting logistics, or with anyone accused 0:32:01.240 --> 0:32:05.520 of being at the scene of the crime. Sergio says 0:32:05.600 --> 0:32:10.080 he believes the expert witnesses testifying on his behalf made 0:32:10.080 --> 0:32:18.320 a convincing case. Jalla conclusion. They came to the conclusion 0:32:18.560 --> 0:32:21.480 that in all of the telephone communications or in the 0:32:21.520 --> 0:32:25.040 text messages that I wrote, there is no evidence at 0:32:25.040 --> 0:32:27.960 all that links me to the death of Berta caris 0:32:28.360 --> 0:32:36.320