Lawyer: Boat case evidence 'thin'

Evidence revealed so far is "thin" against two men accused of murdering four people at sea aboard a charter fishing boat, a defense lawyer said Thursday.

There were no witnesses, no murder weapon has been found and the four victims remain missing at sea and presumed dead, said Allan Kaiser, an attorney for Kirby Logan Archer, outside the federal courthouse downtown after a brief hearing on murder charges filed Wednesday.

"It's a very difficult case," Kaiser said. "You have no physical evidence, really, linking my client to anything. You have no motive."

The previous charges used to keep Archer, 35, and Guillermo Zarabozo, 20, in custody _ being a fugitive from an Arkansas theft and lying to a federal agent, respectively _ were dismissed. An arraignment on the murder charges was scheduled for Oct. 25, with a bail hearing set for Wednesday.

A criminal complaint against Archer and Zarabozo relies mainly on such evidence as bullets found at Zarabozo's home that match shell casings found on the boat and inconsistencies in statements to investigators.

"In the complaint I see very thin evidence," Kaiser said. "We're going forward to vigorously defend this case."

Zarabozo attorney Faith Mesnekoff declined to comment.

"We shouldn't shy away from a case simply because it isn't an easy one," U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said at a news conference Wednesday.

Archer and Zarabozo paid $4,000 in cash for the "Joe Cool" to take them to Bimini, Bahamas, on Sept. 22. The boat was reported missing Sept. 23, and the two men were found on its life raft not far from the abandoned and drifting vessel. No one was aboard.

The men claim they were attacked at sea by Cuban pirates who killed the boat's captain, wife and two crew members and ordered their bodies thrown in the ocean. The pirates, the men said, spared them and left aboard another vessel after the Joe Cool ran out of fuel en route to Cuba.