“We’ re not going to let you get away with it,” th ey chanted in Sp a n-

ish. “We’ re going to kill yo u .” Looking out the wi n d o w, Volz could see

that the angry mob numbered well over 200, some of them wavi n g

sticks and machetes, their fa ces both enra ged and exc ited at the pro s p e ct

o f vi o l e n ce against the gringo. His only pro te ction was sev e ral local

p o l i ce offi ce rs, along with a U.S. embassy security offi cer named Mi ke

Po e h l itz. The plan was to escape via the back door, a scheme that evap-

o ra ted moments later when a friend of Vo l z ’s called on his ce ll phone

and said th e re was a man with a gun wa iting outside.

The only option was to ex it via the fro n t,

wh e re a police pickup truck wa ited for th e m ,

right in the heart of the unruly cro wd. As th ey

h it the street and darted for the truck the driv e r

sped away, and the horde closed in, th ro wi n g

fists and stones. All but one of the cops also

fled; the lone offi cer ya n ked at Vo l z ’s shirt and

y e lled, “Co r r e !” Ru n .

Though he was handcuffed and with o u t

s h o e l a ces, Volz sprinted down the street with

the offi cer and Po e h l itz. Mi ra c u l o u s ly, th ey

made it a block, then ducked into the door-

way of a nearby gymnasium, wh e re th ey bar-

ricaded the door and crept from room to

room as pro te s te rs hunted for them outside. When an unmarke d

p o l i ce truck fi n a lly arr ived an hour later to esco rt them to the sta-

tion, th ey dashed back outside. The cro wd moved in, and people

jumped on the car. The driver gunned it, hitting some pro te s te rs be-

f o re speeding off to wa rd the police station.

But Volz, a 28-y e a r-old American who had come to Nicara gua with

all of the best intentions, was far from free.

Four months late r, in late Ma rch, Eric Volz sits inside a sw e l te r i n g

6 - b y-10-foot ce ll at La Modelo prison, in Ti p itapa, Nicara gua. He can-

not feel the ge n tle breezes that groom and feather the incoming sw e ll s

that fi rst att ra cted him to Nicara guan shores. If he serves his full 30-

year sente n ce he’ll catch his next wave when he’s 57 years old.

The story of how Volz wound up here is every ex p a t r i a te’s wo rs t

n i g h t m a re. He was a well - k n o wn resident of the Pa c i fic coast to wn of

San Juan del Sur, a surfer’s paradise that he’d helped pro m o te. His ex-

girlfriend Doris Jimenez, one of the pre tt i e s t

girls in to wn, was found bruta lly strangled on

the floor of her clothing boutique. Volz co o p e ra te d

with the auth o r ities, only to have them turn on

him, he says, after he offended a local police

o ffi ce r. Despite numerous ey ewit n e sses wh o

said that Volz was two hours away at the time

o f Ji m e n e z ’s murd e r, and the fa ct that no phys-

ical evi d e n ce tied him to the scene, he was co n-

vi cted and sente n ced to 30 years in prison. The

trial, many believe, was a trav e s ty of j u s t i ce th a t

tests the bounds of the ab s u rd.

“ I ’d say this was a case of gu i l ty until pro v e n

i n n o ce n t,” says Ri c a rdo Ca s t i ll o, a well - k n o wn

N i c a ra guan journalist who was meeting with Volz at the time the mur-

der allegedly took place.

“I was re a lly angry that the judge would bend to public pre ss u re

so easily,” Volz told Me n’s Jo u r n a l, re c a lling the judicial fa rce th a t

b rought him here. “I did not kill Doris, ab s o l u te ly not. And I had no

co n n e ction to it .”

JUNE 2007 MEN’S JOURNAL 1 17

e ric volz was tra p p e d. a large crowd had gat h e red outside the small -town

co u rthouse, screaming, “Ojo por ojo!” — an eye for an eye. Volz had just finished a pre l i m i n a r y

hearing for the alleged rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend Doris Jimenez, and despite consid-

erable evidence pointing to his innocence, the judge ruled to allow his case to go to trial. But the

people in the town of Rivas, Nicaragua, wanted more than justice. They wanted revenge.

Se n te n ced to 30 yea rs in a Ni ca raguan prison for a murder he says he didn’t co m m i t ,

Eric Vo l z ’s Latin American surfing dream has turned into a nigh t m a re, co m p l e te

w i th machete -wielding lynch mobs, a trial in the media (and on Yo u Tu b e), and a

sto p over in a notorious Sa n d i n i sta to rtu re chamber. How did it come to th i s?

ASEASON IN HELLASEASON IN HELLASEASON IN HELLASEASON IN HELLASEASON IN HELLASEASON IN HELLASEASON IN HELLASEASON IN HELLASEASON IN HELLASEASON IN HELLASEASON IN HELLASEASON IN HELL

By Dean LaTo u r re tte

P h o to Illustration by Robert Ya g e r

Doris Jimenez and Eric Volz: Did he kill her?

JUNE 2007 MEN’S JOURNAL 1 1 9

a te lunch. Her parents had split up when she

was yo u n g; her mother moved to Ma n a gu a ,

and Jimenez was raised in San Juan del Sur by

her gra n d m o ther and aunt. She was beautiful,

with milky bro wn skin and a dazzling smile.

“ Ev e r yone re a lly liked her,” says Gabriela Sobal-

va rro, Ji m e n e z ’s best friend, who calls her a

c o q u e ta, Spanish for fl i rt. She was smart, to o :

Acco rding to one friend she was studying busi-

n e ss administration at a univ e rs ity campus in

Rivas, about 30 minutes away.

T h e re’s no such thing as casual dating in

N i c a ra gua, at least for the locals. Co u p l e s

a re either j u n t o s ( to ge ther) or th ey’ re not,

without much of a ny thing in betw e e n .

Acco rding to Sobalva rro, Volz and Ji m e n e z

h it it off, and after a few weeks of b e i n g

friends the relationship turned ro m a n t i c .

T h ey became j u n t o s. “T h ey got along re a lly

w e ll ,” says Thompson, wh o, with his wi f e ,

s h a red a house with Volz and Jimenez in

the latter half o f 2005. “Doris was re a lly

c h i ll, almost docile.”

O n ce, when Volz went away for a

f ew days, Jimenez deco ra ted the house

with balloons and stre a m e rs and baked a

c a ke to welcome him back. “The guy was only

gone a week,” says Mc Mandon, who lived with

the couple in 2006.

Volz’s mother first met Jimenez on a visit

in November 2005. “She was go rgeous, and

very sw e e t,” she says. At the time, Volz wa s

helping Jimenez open up a clothing sto re, call e d

Sol Fashion, in San Juan del Sur, and his moth e r

helped Jimenez design and deco ra te the space.

“T h e re was something about Doris wh e re yo u

almost wa n ted to ta ke care of h e r,” she says .

Ji m e n e z ’s friends wo n d e red if Volz re t u r n e d

her aff e ctions. “I didn’t like him much,” claims

S o b a lva rro. “He was always busy with his wo r k

and never had time for Doris. I also think he

felt that he was superior to her.”

Volz wa s n’t the type to go out drinking ev e r y

night with the boys. He had gre a ter ambit i o n s;

he was spending more and more time on E l

Pu e n t e, which he and Thompson now co-o wn e d .

Thompson wa n ted to keep El Pu e n t e local and

g ra ss roots, while Volz saw it gro wing into a

g l o ssy travel magazine covering susta i n ab l e

tourism and development in Ce n t ral Am e r i c a .

In early 2006, he wre s ted co n t rol from Thomp-

son in a messy split. “I would call Eric co n-

t ro lling, not just with Doris but in ge n e ra l ,”

s ays Thompson. “He was very self-ass u re d ,

very co n fident. I’d call him arro ga n t, but he

probably thought he had reason to be.”

In Ju ly 2006 the new (and so far only) iss u e

o f El Pu e n t e m a gazine was published. That same

m o n th Volz moved to Ma n a gua, and he and

Jimenez bro ke up. They were separa ted for ab o u t

a month, acco rding to friends, but then he bega n

to vi s it and th ey would be seen hanging out

to ge th e r. But Vo l z ’s main focus was in Ma n-

a gua, wh e re he had an incre a s i n g ly co m p l ex

b u s i n e ss. On Tu e s d ay afternoon, November 21,

2006, Volz was working in El Pu e n t e’s Ma n a gu a

o ffi ce with more than a half dozen oth e rs wh e n

he says he got the call from Jon Thompson’s

wife. Doris Jimenez had been murd e re d .

he first person to discoverthe crime was Ji m e n e z ’s co u s i n

Oscar Blandón, who told the co u rt

he went to Sol Fashion around two

in the afternoon and found her

body in the back room. She had been gagged

and strangled, her wrists and ankles tied.

Blandón ran to get Gabriela Sobalvarro, who

worked down the street. “When I entered the

s to re, it was a mess ,” she says. “Doris wa s

wrapped up in sheets like a mummy.”

Sobalvarro called Volz. “He told me not to

let anyone go into the crime scene, including

the police, until he got there,” she says. It was

too late. A cro wd had ga th e red, and at least 20

people traipsed in and out of the sto re, to u c h-

ing the body and poss i b ly even moving it, before

the police arrived about 20 minutes later and

finally roped off the scene.

Al though Jimenez was found fully cloth e d ,

the police removed her jeans and her shirt

and took pict u res of h e r. Marks on her body

led them to conclude that she’d been raped,

va g i n a lly and anally, an ex p l o s ive claim th a t

soon found its way into print but was nev e r

s ub s ta n t i a ted. Jimenez wa s n’t known as a

d r i n ke r, but she had a blood alcohol level of

0 .30 percent — th ree times the DUI limit in

most U.S. sta tes. The co roner estimated th e

time of d e a th between 11 a m and 1:45 p m, right

during lunchtime, while people were eating

at sidewalk restaurants.

“We didn’t see or hear a th i n g ,” says Bob

Me rr i ll, whose pizza shop is dire ctly acro ss th e

street. “It just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Meanwhile, Volz rented a car in Managua

and set out for San Juan del Sur, stopping in

Rivas to pick up Ji m e n e z ’s fa ther Iva n .

When th ey arr ived at the scene at aro u n d

6 pm there was still a crowd in front of

the store, but police had the entrance blocked

o ff. A ta ke-c h a rge sort of p e rson, Volz demanded

to be let in. The police refused; when Volz ke p t

asking questions, he says, th ey turned hostile.

“I know the rules,” says Volz. “Yo u’ re not

supposed to get invo lved here, yo u’ re not sup-

posed to get hands-on with a police inv e s t i-

gation. But Doris’s fa m i ly wa s n’t doing any th i n g ,

the police weren’t giving them any answers.”

From this point on his actions would be

c a re f u lly scrutinized. Sp ying Sobalva rro, he

gave her a brief hug. “He was very cold, very

u n e m o t i o n a l ,” she says. “He didn’t even cry.

He asked me ifI had eaten, ifI was hungry. I

thought that was strange.”

The next day, Volz says he was in Riva s

when a friend called, saying he’d re ce ived a

th re a tening text mess a ge: “Your girlfriend

is next .” Alarmed, Volz, his friend, and the

1 1 8 MEN’S JOURNAL JUNE 2007

Volz is handsome, with intense, dark bro wn

eyes. He’s six feet ta ll, and his muscular fra m e

might make an assailant think twice, but he’s

already had to defend himself with his fists in

prison. As an American co nvi cted of rap i n g

and murdering a Nicaraguan woman, he got

i n to scuffles with a former ce ll m a te, and oth e r

inmates have menaced him daily.

“The threat is very real,” he says. “It’s very

simple for Doris’s fa m i ly to pay $500 or $1,000

to send a message to one of these gangs to try

and kill me.”

Vo l z ’s imprisonment has sparked an unof-

ficial diplomatic wa r. His parents and supporte rs

h ave mounted a media campaign for his re l e a s e

that has re s u l ted in segments on the To d a y s h o w

(among oth e rs), so far to no avail. Online, a

handful of American and Nicara guan blogs and

w e b s ites offer their versions of the truth to th e

b ro wsing masses. A sev e n - m i n u te pro-Vo l z

video on Yo u Tube shows him being hustled off

to the co u rthouse over a moody Ra d i o h e a d

s o u n d t ra c k, while a competing version, by

“ N i c a ra guan Fi l m s ,” also on Yo u Tube, linge rs

on him blinking — gu i l t i ly, we’ re to assume —

as the judge deliv e rs her verd i ct. And Me n’s Jo u r-

n a l has learned that Vo l z ’s fa m i ly has hire d

p r iva te inv e s t i ga to rs to re examine Ji m e n e z ’s

m u rd e r, which was poorly handled by police.

Vo l z ’s case is far more co m p l ex than th a t

o f an innocent ab road who got caught on th e

wrong side of a Third World justice sys te m .

At the time of his arrest he was any thing but

a care f ree surf b u m; he had fully embra ce d

N i c a ra guan culture, and his main purs u it

wa s n’t leisure but publishing a bilingual mag-

azine called El Puente (The Bridge ), wh i c h

sought to close the gap between Ce n t ral and

No rth American cultures. In s te a d, Volz has

b e come a flashpoint for the tensions betw e e n

N i c a ra gu a’s gro wing co m m u n ity of re l a t iv e ly

w e a l thy Americans and locals who feel left on

the sidelines of p ro s p e r ity.

The trial left many questions unansw e red —

such as why anyone would want to harm Ji m e n e z .

How a man could be co nvi cted of a murder th a t

a ll ege dly took place while he was on the phone

and having lunch two hours away. Was Eric

Volz singled out as part of an anti-Am e r i c a n

backlash — backed, perhaps, by the newly re s u r-

gent leftist Sandinista party? Or is the dream of

s u r fing and living in paradise simply unte n-

able? The only ce rta i n ty is that no gringo in

N i c a ra gua believed in that dream more th a n

Eric Volz, and few have suff e red a ruder awa k-

e n i n g. “The more polit i c a lly charged my case

b e comes, the more nervous I ge t,” he says .

he road from mana g ua toSan Juan del Sur is like a metap h o r

for life in Nicara gua: lush and beau-

tiful, but uneven and full of s u r-

prises. There are sections of f re s h

p avement wh e re cars can zoom along, but

for the most part it’s a slow, potholed slalom

course requiring serious navigation skills.

O n ce you reach the end of the road, San Ju a n

del Sur sucks you in. Ne s tled by a hors e s h o e-

s h ape bay, with fishing boats on the beach, th e

f r i e n dly and re l axed to wn of 18,000 is not fa r

f rom some of the best surfing beaches in south-

ern Nicara gua. There’s a magical quality ab o u t

the place that you just can’t put your fi n ger on,

s o m e thing that inspires fi rs t-time vi s ito rs to sta rt

d reaming about dropping out of the rat ra ce.

“ I ’ve never once felt unw e l come by th e

l o c a l s; in fa ct, just the opposite ,” says Brya n

Mc Mandon, who quit his San Fra n c i s co job

and moved here in 2004 after vi s iting on a surf-

ing trip. “Everyone has bent over backwards

to help me, especially when I fi rst got here and

didn’t know a lick of Spanish.”

Real esta te offi ces line San Juan del Sur’s

main drag, and you can still find a beachfront

lot for $75,000 — a bargain co m p a red to Co s ta

Rica, just 20 miles to the south. “The fi rst time

we came here we asked Eric about buying pro p-

erty,” says Volz’s stepfather Dane Anthony.

A little more than 20 years ago, though, San

Juan del Sur was a Cold War battl e field. In 1984

U.S. forces planted mines along the coast as

p a rt of the Re a gan administra t i o n’s eff o rt to

oust Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega — wh o

was re ce n tly re e l e cted president.

“ It ’s real to u c hy, real delicate here ,” says

Jane Mi ra n d e tte, who founded and runs a

local library pro g ram. “T h e re are people wh o

d o n’t speak to their neighbor because of wh a t

h appened in 1980. We have Co n t ras, we hav e

S a n d i n i s tas, we have ev e r y thing in this to wn .

Emotions run re a lly deep, and people’s fears

run deep to o.”

Eric Volz fi rst ro lled into to wn on a back-

packing trip in 1998. Like most young n o r t ea m-

e r i ca n o s, he’d come for the surfing, but that wa s n’t

the only reason. Despite the tabloid headl i n e s

c a lling him “the gringo murd e re r,” Volz is only

h a l fg r i n go; his mother is Mexican. He spent a

s e m e s ter studying Spanish in Guadalaja ra and

m a j o red in Latin American cultural studies at

the Un iv e rs ity of Ca l i f o r n i a –San Diego. “I th i n k

Eric always wa n ted to get in touch with that part

o f his herita ge ,” says his moth e r. “And like ev e r y-

thing else he does, he poured himself i n to it .”

He moved to San Juan del Sur in early 2005

and took a job in the small but bustling local

Century 21 offi ce, earning as much as $100,000

a year selling beachfront lots and townhouse

condos in developments that were beginning

to dot the pristine coast. He began taking pho-

tos for El Pu e n t e, then a local news l e tte r, sta rte d

by an expat named Jon Thompson.

It wa s n’t long before he met Doris Ji m e n e z ,

a slender 25-y e a r-old beauty who wo r ked at

the Roca Mar re s ta u ra n t, wh e re Volz usually

D ean LaTo u rrett e is a contributor

to The Surfer’s Journal and San Francisco

m a ga z i n e. This is his first article for MJ.

“HE WAS VE RY SELF- ASS U RE D. I’D CA LL HIMARROGANT, BUT HE PROBABLY THOUGHTHE HAD REASON TO BE,” SAYS A FRIEND.

“Justice was serv e d ”A b ove: One of Eric Vo lz’s chief accusers was his

e x - g i rlfr i e n d ’s moth e r, Merc e d es Alva ra d o, who

e ven orga n ized protesters for his tr i al. Ri g ht :

J i m e n ez was found in the back room of her sto re .

L i v i ng the Drea mVolz (on boat, right) was drawn to the laid-back

vibe of San Juan del Sur (facing page), but he soon

got serious, turning a local newsletter into a mag-

azine with 10 employees (Volz is third from right).

TTTTTTTTTTTT

TTTTTTTTTTTT

JUNE 2007 MEN’S JOURNAL 1 59

Not surprisingly, Bruce often uncorks his

best performances for head-to-head matc h u p s

against Andy.

In the 2001 Pipeline Ma s ter semifinal, for

example, he fa ced An dy at a critical junct u re, as

An dy needed to reach the final to clinch th e

Triple Cro wn title. Bruce didn’t hold back and

even swiped a couple of crucial rides right out

f rom under his bro th e r. An dy ended up in th i rd

and out of co n te n t i o n .

In their fi rst head-to-head World Co n te s t

Final, An dy and Bruce ente red the 35-minute

clash as the two main standouts, but this time

An dy squashed him like a bug. “I’m beside

mys e l f,” An dy gushed after the win. “To have my

b ro ther in it, and be in the South of Fra n ce with

10-foot waves. It was awesome. Pro b ab ly one

o f the most memorable wins of my whole life.”

An dy doesn’t handle losing to Bruce nearly

as well as defeating him. In 2004, Bruce beat

him in a heat at the only WCT stop in No rth

America, the Boost Mobile Pro at Lower Tre s-

tles, California. Then, to make matte rs wo rs e ,

An dy surfed poorly the foll o wing day, losing

to a young upsta rt, Dane Reynolds. A disgu s te d

An dy stormed th rough the co m p e t ito rs’ are a ,

to re off his jers ey, ente red a te n t, and punched

his surfb o a rd into pieces.

If th ey’ re still far from to u c hy- f e e ly, th e

b ro th e rs do have each oth e rs’ back (Bruce sto o d

outside the tent during that tantrum to ke e p

p h o to g rap h e rs at bay ), and th ey do seem to be

m o ving from co n tempt to wa rd more ex p a n s iv e

d i s p l ays of re s p e ct .

Rick Irons, a fi rst cousin to the boys, says

that to fi n a lly unders tand their dynamic, yo u

h ave to ap p re c i a te the diff e re n ce between co m-

p e t ition and seeking acce p ta n ce. “An dy wa n t s

to prove himself to Bruce and Bruce wants to

p rove himself to An dy. It ’s not just to dominate

the other pers o n ,” he explains. “It ’s to have him

s ay, ‘Hey, great job.’ But th ey never quite give it

to each oth e r. But th ey both want it, and I th i n k

th ey’ re coming to the point in their lives wh e re

th ey’ re almost re a dy.”

* * *at the kickoff event to the 2007 wct,the Qu i k s i lver Pro at Snapper Rocks, Au s-

t ralia, Bruce took an impre ss ive ninth place ,

while the fl u -s t r i c ken An dy bombed out early,

placing dead last. It ’s only one ev e n t, and may

be long forgo tten by the time An dy and Bruce

a re back on the No rth Sh o re for the Tr i p l e

C ro wn series in No v e m b e r; but for th e

moment it gives Bruce a ra re lead in wo r l d

tour points, and an even bigger lead in his

o n going psychological wa r fa re against his big

b ro th e r. As this story went to pre ss, the Ri p

Curl Pro at Bells Beach, also in Au s t ralia, wa s

just ge tting underway. After that the to u r

moves to the hideously violent waves of

Te a h u p o o, Ta h iti, ex a ctly the kind of p l a ce

wh e re the Irons boys know how to shine.

E s p e c i a lly if An dy arr ives in Ta h iti tra i l i n g

B r u ce, things should get very inte re s t i n g.m

and a drug user,” he said, “but I’m not a liar.”

( Co n ta cted by Me n’s Jo u r n a l, Lopez Dangla

said he stands by his te s t i m o ny.)

Volz sat patiently th rough the te s t i m o ny,

co n s c i o u s ly co n t ro lling his body langu a ge. By

U.S. sta n d a rds he had an airtight defense.

Re co rds from ce ll phone to w e rs showed th a t

he was in Ma n a gua at the time of the murd e r,

as did te s t i m o ny from sev e ral wit n e ss e s ,

including Ri c a rdo Ca s t i ll o, who said he had

lunch with Volz that day. Sev e ral oth e rs had

also seen him, but the judge disqualified th e m

because th ey wo r ked for him.

On Fr i d ay, February 16, the th i rd day of th e

trial, Ju d ge Toruño Blanco reached her decision.

In open co u rt she either disco u n ted or dis-

m i ssed most of the defense’s evi d e n ce. Sh e

d i s c re d ited the alibi wit n e sses, claiming th ey all

had business relationships with the defendant,

including the journalist Ca s t i ll o. She dismiss e d

the phone re co rds, saying th e re was no pro o f

that Volz had act u a lly made the calls. (The de-

fense did not call wit n e sses who could co n fi r m

h aving spoken to Volz on his ce ll phone.)

She instead chose to accept Lopez Dangla’s

te s t i m o ny, despite the fa ct that he was inco h e r-

ent on the stand and had ev e r y thing to gain by

te s t i f ying against Volz. The scra tches on Vo l z ’s

shoulder co n s t it u ted further pro o f that he had

co m m itted the crime, she said; no mention wa s

made of Lopez Dangla’s numerous scra tc h e s .

“ Nelson Dangla and [another wit n e ss] have all

the cre d i b i l ity nece ss a r y,” she ass e rted. Sh e

found Volz and Chamorro both gu i l ty.

Volz stood blinking in disbelief. “ O n ce I

h e a rd the initial part of the verd i ct, I sto p p e d

p aying atte n t i o n ,” says Volz. “I immediate ly

s ta rted preparing for what was next. It wa s

back to survival mode, focusing all my energy

on staying aliv e .”

f o ll o wing his convi c tion volz wa ss e n t to the El Modelo max i m u m -s e c u r ity

fa c i l ity. After fighting with his fi rst ro o m m a te,

he was paired with a 35-y e a r-old man co n-

vi cted of a ttempting to murder his wife. “He

keeps the place clean, he re s p e cts pers o n a l

s p a ce, he doesn’t use drugs, and he’s not gay,”

s ays Volz. “It ’s a good sit u a t i o n .”

His parents have hired someone to bring

him fresh vege tables and wa ter to supplement

the single plate of r i ce and beans he’s all o tte d

each day. Once a week he gets two hours in th e

ya rd; he spends the whole time running. He

does yo ga stre tches in the morning and uses

m e d itation and visualization to try to ke e p

h i m s e l f ce n te red. “I don’t re a lly have time to

spend with the other prisoners ,” he says .

“ Prison is a time to self-ex p l o re and re a lly try

to make sense of it all .”

Volz isn’t the only one trying to make sense

o f things. His mother and ste p fa ther Dane

An th o ny have launched a media campaign

on his behalf, beginning with a website ,

f r i e n d s o f e r i c vo l z . com, th a t ’s regu l a r ly update d

with news about his case, and lists of th i n g s

that vi s ito rs can pray for if th ey choose.

The U.S. embassy is tight-lipped, but th e

e m b a ssy monito rs his treatment in prison, and

l egal observers attended his trial. Vo l z ’s lawy e rs

h ave appealed the co nvi ction, in the hope th a t

— barring further lynch-mob shenanigans —

cooler heads wi ll prevail. (Chamorro has also

ap p e a l e d .) “I don’t think [the co nvi ct i o n ]

was polit i c a lly motiva te d ,” says Ca s t i ll o. “T h i s

type of thing happens to a lot of N i c a ra gu a n s ,

and it ’s re a lly a problem. It needs to change .”

Then again, cooler heads might not pre-

vail. The media campaign has stirred up a

backlash in San Juan del Sur; one Am e r i c a n

journalist had his tires slashed, and a pho-

to g rapher was th re a tened — by an expat. Lo c a l

opinion seems to have solidified against Vo l z .

A re cent headline in El Nuevo Diario co n-

demned “Pu re Lies From the Volz Fa m i ly.” “I’d

s ay about 85 percent of the Nicara guans here

think Eric Volz is gu i l ty,” says one San Juan del

Sur native. “Maybe more .”

To their minds, ev e r y thing adds up. Vo l z

and Jimenez had split, she was seeing some-

one else, and he was jealous. He also was said

to show no emotion at the murder sce n e ,

which struck people as suspicious. He aske d

too many questions, acted too bossy, and dare d

to tangle with the cops, which any Nicara gu a n

k n o ws is tempting fa te. Something was up.

And, fi n a lly, the judge found him gu i l ty. “Ju s-

t i ce was served,” says Ji m e n e z ’s moth e r.

In the short run some Nicara guans might

see the case as a vi ctory against the rich Am e r-

icans who are buying up the co u n t r y, one quar-

te r- a c re beachfront lot at a time. “The locals are

s ta rting to realize how much money the grin-

gos are making in Nicara gu a ,” says one ex p a t .

“I don’t think th ey re a lly knew before. Mayb e

th e re is some animosity when a gringo buys

land for $20K from a local and turns aro u n d

and sells it for $50K to another gringo. The local

made $20K for land th ey’ve owned their wh o l e

life and the gringo made $30K in five minute s .

This has happened plenty, and I’m sure th e

locals have felt ripped off as a re s u l t .”

“I think locals are sta rting to realize th a t

th ey’ re ge tting left behind,” Volz agre e s .

“T h e re’s been more crimes and other th i n g s

that seem re l a ted to the social inequity. I th i n k

th e re’s an underlying tone to the whole real es-

ta te boom, and me being a member of th a t

co m m u n ity working for Century 21. They just

chose to see this so-c a lled privi l eged, money e d

real esta te guy.”

Volz is annoyed that fellow expats are ke e p-

ing quiet about his case; he thinks th ey’ re afra i d

to spoil their budding boomto wn, which local

real esta te websites liken to Cancun in the ’6 0s .

T h e re are miles of unspoiled co a s tline wa it i n g

to be snapped up. One day th e re wi ll be high-

ways and condos, and the pristine kilomete r-

long beach th a t ’s listed for $2 million wi ll seem

l i ke an incredible bargain. Or so th ey hope. m

1 20 MEN’S JOURNAL JUNE 2007

girlfriend went into the police station to re p o rt

it and spoke to a co m m i ssioner of i nv e s t i ga t i o n s

named Emilio Reyes. The meeting quickly

turned sour. “You drink a lot, don’t you Eric?”

Reyes asked, acco rding to Volz. “Do you ge t

violent when you drink? How many times

h ave you hit Doris? Are you a jealous guy ?

Are you jealous enough to kill someone

if they cheated on you?”

Reyes also wo n d e red aloud, “Why don’t

Americans ta ke showers very often?”

That set Volz off. “I know my rights,

and I stood up for them,” he says. “I was

l i ke, ‘I don’t like the way yo u’ re ta lking to

me. If yo u’ re going to accuse me of s o m e-

thing, if you’re implying something, do

it dire ctly. I’ll get an atto r n ey if I need

to.’ ” He left in a huff, refusing to sign a

statement Reyes had given him.

At Ji m e n e z ’s funeral on Thurs d ay, Volz helped

c a rry the casket and cried at the grave site .

Afte r wa rd the police asked him to come back

to the station to resume his co nv e rsation with

Reyes. Volz realized he was in tro uble when th e

p o l i ce put him in their pickup truck and para d e d

him slowly th rough the ce n ter of San Juan del

S u r, as his friends and acq u a i n ta n ces gap e d .

“ It was a stra tegy to immediate ly build sup-

p o rt [against me] and have people sta rt spre a d-

ing rumors ,” Volz says now. The police bro u g h t

him to the Rivas station and charged him with

murder. “I was totally shocked,” says Volz. “I

was not expecting that at all.”

The police also charged three other men,

including a wealthy student named Ar m a n d o

Llanes, whose fa ther owns a nearby hotel, and

who Doris had dated after she and Volz broke

u p. They also picked up two local hangab o u t s ,

Nelson Lopez Dangla, a known drug user, and

Ma rtin Chamorro, who had a long-s ta n d i n g

crush on Jimenez and who had chided her pub-

l i c ly for dating Americans. Chamorro had

scratches on his face, while Lopez had marks

a ll over his body, including his penis. Acco rd-

ing to the police, the four had allegedly raped

and killed her to ge th e r, led by Volz. In a sta te-

ment to police, Chamorro all eged that Vo l z

and Llanes had paid him $5,000 to help th e m

do the deed.

It wa s n’t long before all of the atte n t i o n

s e ttled on Volz, especially, he says, after a

local police official told Ji m e n e z ’s mother th a t

Volz had co n f e ssed to the crime (which he

h a d n’t ). A few days later the Sandinista pap e r

El Nuevo Diario p ublished a fro n t- p a ge sto r y

a ccusing Volz of leading a brutal ga n g- rap e

and murder of “this ‘s i re n ita’ of San Juan del

S u r.” The news p ap e r’s version was acce p te d

as gospel.

Jimenez’s mother Mercedes Alvarado, 45,

ap p e a red often on TV, appearing to sob

exaggeratedly — despite the fact that she and

Jimenez had been estra n ged and ra re ly ta lke d .

A volunteer Sandinista organizer, she lives in

a small house on a dirt street with a huge pic-

ture of President Ortega on the wall. She had

met Volz only a few times, but that didn’t sto p

her from re l aying lurid tales of his disre s p e ct-

ful treatment ofher daughter, from midnight

booty calls to supposed beatings. ( Jimenez in

fa ct spent most nights at Vo l z ’s place wh e n

th ey were to ge th e r, and ro o m m a tes say th ey

got along well .) Alva rado organized the truck-

loads of p ro te s te rs who were brought in for

Volz’s preliminary hearing.

“This is my to wn, and these are my peo-

ple,” she says. “It was a show ofsolidarity and

s u p p o rt from the people. We knew if the judge

found him innocent, he would go free.”

He ended up in El Chipote, the Sandin-

i s ta s’ notorious underg round to rt u re prison

in Ma n a gua. Clad only in boxe rs and a ta n k

top, Volz was thrown into a tiny, windowless

co n c re te ce ll, which he shared with two sco r p i o n s

and a ta rantula. The lights stayed on 24 hours

a day, and the dripping moisture bred mos-

quitoes that feasted on his exposed flesh.

Volz believes Emilio Reyes, co m m i ss i o n e r

o fi nv e s t i gation for the Rivas police — the same

man he thinks ord e red his arrest and leaked his

“co n f e ss i o n” — may have sent him th e re.

o re akin to a fourth-

g ra de cl a ss room than a house

o f l aw, the Rivas co u rt ro o m

seats about 25 people, on meta l

c h a i rs, and te s t i f ying wit n e ss e s

a re within arm’s length from both the judge

and the co u rt re p o rte r. A large, colorful poste r

ta c ked on the co u rt room door depicts a hand

o ffering money to a fa ce l e ss judge, with a sto p

sign in between. Acco rding to the U.S. State

D e p a rt m e n t, judicial co rruption is ra m p a n t

in Nicaragua.

On February 14, the fi rst day of his trial,

Volz entered the courtroom wearing a brown

long-sleeved parka zipped up to his chin that

co n cealed a bull e t p ro o f vest. After th e

m ayhem foll o wing the preliminary hear-

ing, Volz and the police were n’t ta k i n g

any chances. The police took the further

p recaution of blocking off the stre e t s

around the courthouse.

There was no jury, only the judge, a

woman from Rivas named Iv e tte To r u ñ o

B l a n co. And the four initial suspects had

been wh ittled down to two: Volz and

C h a m o rro. On the day of the pre l i m i n a r y

hearing in Dece m b e r, Llanes had shown

up with this fa ther and a lawyer and a

p aper showing he had been reg i s te r i n g

for classes on the day of the crime. After a

c l o s e d -door meeting with the pro s e c u tor he

was let go. Charges against Lopez Dangla had

also been dropped, and in an unlike ly twi s t,

he was now going to testify against Volz.

It ap p e a red at fi rst that Volz might hav e

a fighting chance. The medical examiner and

the police te s t i fied that th e re was no phys i-

cal evi d e n ce linking Volz to the kill i n g. None

o f the 100-plus hair samples matched his.

T h e re was no semen found in Ji m e n e z ’s body,

but because she had been embalmed, a full

examination was not performed. And the only

blood found at the crime scene besides Ji m e n e z ’s

was type O. Volz is type A. Al s o, Volz had

signed cre d it card re ceipts for the re n tal car;

the co n t ra ct was printed at 3:11 p m. The only

p hysical evi d e n ce the prosecution pre s e n te d

rega rding Volz was photos of s c ra tches on

his back. (He claims th ey were from carr y-

ing Ji m e n e z ’s caske t .)

Soon it was clear that this was not go i n g

to be an orderly, Law & Order–style trial, but

m o re of a theatrical performance. After she

finished answering questions, Sobalva rro

a n n o u n ced dra m a t i c a lly that Jimenez had co n-

fided that Volz had th re a tened to kill her if s h e

went with another man. Ji m e n e z ’s moth e r

echoed that sta te m e n t, adding that Vo l z ’s fa m-

i ly had off e red her $1 million to drop the charge s

against Volz, a claim Volz’s family adamantly

denies. At one point during the trial gu n s h o t s

w e re fi red outside — ap p a re n tly by police

trying to control the crowds — and while the

j u d ge re t re a ted to chambers, Alva rado launched

an impromptu news conference.

Things became even more bizarre wh e n

Lopez Dangla took the stand. Acco rding to

defense atto r n ey Fab b r ith Gomez, he was “vi s-

i b ly inco h e rent” and “a g ita ted” during his te s-

t i m o ny, co n t i n u a lly pleading his innoce n ce to

the judge even though he was not on trial.

Lopez Dangla said he had seen Volz co m i n g

out of the vi ct i m’s sto re at 1 p m, and that Vo l z

had paid him about $3 to dispose of two black

bags he was carr yi n g. He did not mention

Llanes. “I may be lazy

N I CA RAG UA co n t i n u ed from page 120

[ c o n t i n u ed on page 159 ]

“THE LO CA LS ARE STA RTING TO RE A LIZEH OW MUCH MONEY THE GRI N G OS AREMA KING IN NICA RA GUA,” SAYS ONE EX PAT.

Eric Volz behind bars at the Rivas jail. Later he

would be sent to the hellish El Chipote prison.

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