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Seventeenth
Judicial Circuit, Broward County Case # 94-13062
Sentencing Judge: The Honorable Lance True Andrews
Attorney, Trial: Kayo Morgan & Barbara Brush – Private
Attorney, Direct Appeal: Peter Raben – Private
Attorney, Collateral Appeals: Richard Kiley – CCRC-M
Date of Offense:
06/26/94
Date of
Sentence: 08/28/00
Circumstances of Offense:
On 06/26/94, a
Palm Beach County police officer discovered a Mercedes SL convertible on
fire in a road south of South Bay, Florida. The car was registered to
Casmir Sucharski, the owner of a nightclub called Casey’s Nickelodeon.
The Miramar
Police Department was notified and a Mirimar police officer went to
Sucharski’s home to tell him that his car had been found. The officer
knocked on the door and received no answer, so he stuck his card in the
door and left.
On 06/27/94, a woman called the Broward County Sheriff’s
Department and reported that her daughter, Marie Rogers, and her friend
Sharon Anderson had gone to Casey’s Nickelodeon on 06/25/94 but had not
returned home.
A
deputy went to Casey’s Nickelodeon to investigate and was told that
Rogers and Anderson had left the club early on the morning of the 26th
in the company of Sucharski. The deputy then went to Sucharski’s house,
saw Anderson’s car in the driveway, but no one answered the door. A
Miramar police department card was still in the door, so the deputy
peered inside and saw three bodies.
The bodies in the house were Sucharski, Rogers, and Anderson, and all
three died of gunshot wounds to the back and back of the head. Video
surveillance footage inside the house showed intruders coming inside the
house, beating Sucharski, and shooting all three victims in the back of
the head.
Video footage also showed the intruders rummaging through the house and
garage and taking Sucharski’s watch and boots. One of the intruders had
something covering his face, but eventually removed it, while the other
intruder wore a cap and sunglasses, which were never removed.
Miramar police
distributed flyers with pictures of the intruders taken from the
surveillance video footage. Three weeks after the murders, Miramar
police received a call from the Metro-Dade Police Department and were
informed that a man matching the flyer picture was in custody on an
unrelated charge. The man was identified as Pablo Ibar. Ibar was
identified as the man who uncovered his face during the murders.
Ibar lived with
several friends in a rented house in Hollywood, Florida. One of the
roommates identified Ibar and another roommate, Seth Penalver, as the
men pictured on the flyer. Ibar was identified as the man who uncovered
his face, while Penalver was identified as the man who wore a cap and
sunglasses.
Codefendant
Information:
Seth Penalver was also
sentenced to death for his role in the murders. On 02/02/06, the
Florida Supreme Court reversed Penalver’s convictions, vacated his
sentences, and remanded for a new trial.
Additional
Information:
Pablo Ibar
and Seth Penalver were tried together in 1998, but the trial ended in a
mistrial due to a hung jury. They were tried separately again in 2000
and both were convicted and sentenced to death.
Pablo Ibar gained Spanish citizenship after his 2000
conviction.
Trial Summary:
08/25/94
Indicted as follows:
Count I: First-Degree
Murder (Casimir Sucharski)
Count II: First-Degree Murder (Sharon Anderson)
Count III: First-Degree Murder (Marie Rogers)
Count IV: Armed Burglary
Count V: Armed Robbery
Count VI: Attempted Armed Robbery
06/14/00 Jury
returned guilty verdicts on all counts of the indictment
07/24/00 Jury
recommended death by votes of 9-3
08/28/00
Sentenced as follows:
Count I: First-Degree
Murder (Casimir Sucharski) – Death
Count II: First-Degree Murder (Sharon Anderson) – Death
Count III: First-Degree Murder (Marie Rogers) – Death
Count IV: Armed Burglary – 25 years
Count V: Armed Robbery – 25 years
Count VI: Attempted Armed Robbery – 10 years
Case Information:
On 09/25/00, Ibar filed a
Direct Appeal with the Florida Supreme Court, citing the following trial
court errors: failing to find that out of court statements were
“statements of identification”; admitting witness testimony for purposes
of impeaching testimony; admitting the transcript of testimony given by
a deceased witness at a previous trial; allowing the State to introduce
hearsay evidence and expert testimony; precluding admission of evidence
regarding third-party motive, animosity, and reputation evidence;
admitting evidence regarding a live lineup; denying due process by
references to certain evidence; and violating the Florida and U.S.
Constitutions with the imposition of the death penalty.
On
03/09/06, the FSC affirmed the convictions and sentences.
Ibar filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari with the
U.S. Supreme Court on 12/05/06 that was denied on 02/20/07.
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