Christian Emmanuel Sanon pleaded not guilty as his trial opened in Miami.
The Haitian American pastor, 67, faces life in prison on charges he helped orchestrate the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. Jury selection began Monday in U.S. District Court, where Sanon has maintained his innocence since his 2023 transfer from Haitian custody to face American prosecution.
Sanon’s defense acknowledges his political ambitions but insists he never knew of plans to kill Moïse. His attorneys are expected to argue that co-conspirators gradually pushed him aside as they shifted focus to other potential successors. Several already-convicted defendants, however, have identified him as a ringleader in the sprawling conspiracy.
Born in southern Haiti, Sanon studied medicine in the Dominican Republic before relocating to Florida, where he lived intermittently starting in the 2000s. He later posted online videos presenting himself as a prospective leader capable of transforming Haiti. Prosecutors allege he helped recruit participants for the plot and intended to assume the presidency once Moïse was removed.
The assassination itself unfolded July 7, 2021, when armed men stormed Moïse’s home near Port-au-Prince and shot him dead in his bedroom. His widow, Martine Moïse, who survived the attack, is among the witnesses expected to testify against Sanon. The killing has left Haiti without an elected president for more than four years, deepening political chaos and accelerating gang expansion across the country.
The investigation has sprawled across multiple countries and implicated dozens of people, including former Colombian soldiers. Five defendants have already received life sentences. Authorities say the conspiracy was organized and financed largely from South Florida, driven by political and financial motives including efforts to install a new government and obtain lucrative state contracts. Investigators and media reports have also tied the assassination to tensions between Moïse and powerful figures allegedly linked to drug and arms trafficking.
Sanon was originally slated to be the final defendant tried in Miami. That changed in August, when U.S. Authorities charged 30 additional suspects and extradited 18 defendants from Haitian custody to stand trial in the United States. The expanded case now encompasses a far broader network than initially alleged.
Haitian police arrested Sanon days after the assassination, discovering boxes of ammunition, 19 passports and other items during a search of his residence. U.S. Prosecutors first charged him in connection with allegedly smuggling bulletproof vests to Haiti before broadening the indictment to include the conspiracy charges he now faces.
Haiti is preparing for its first presidential election in a decade this December, though rampant gang violence and persistent corruption more than five years after Moïse’s death have raised serious doubts about whether a credible vote remains possible.