here are two articles about the trial. he was- at some point- on a discovery channel recreation and the crazy thing was there was a baliff with a button for a stun belt as he had been...unruly before. i saved the articles during the trial so my wife could read them after. she took it seriously about not discussing any details or anything about the case.

Trial opens for felon accused of killing Top 6 gang members
First-degree murder case focuses on 2007 Lake Worth triple killing
Charlie Wyne, 28, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Charlie Wyne, 28, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and… (Palm Beach County Sheriff's…)
April 18, 2013|By Marc Freeman, Sun Sentinel
Military-style assault weapons. A trail of bodies. Illegal drug trade. Street warfare. These were Palm Beach County's darkest days of gang violence, and it all returned in a courtroom drama Thursday.

It took six years for the major gangland murder trial to get underway, but the first two hours showcased what will be a fight for justice.



The prosecutor told jurors the case is about a 2007 massacre in a Lake Worth back yard, with AK-47-toting, masked hitmen carrying out revenge killings. She says there's DNA evidence, surveillance videos and a prison confession to implicate defendant Charlie Wyne, 28, as one of the shooters.

The defense attorney countered by casting the victims as drug dealers with the notorious Top 6 street gang, while citing conflicting witness accounts and questionable police work. He says there's a lack of evidence to find his client guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Wyne is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of attempted first-degree murder for the March 27, 2007 bloodbath behind the home in the 1400 block of South B Street in Lake Worth.

Before the state's first witness was called to testify, Circuit Judge Richard Oftedal sent the jury out of the room after Assistant State Attorney Cheryl Caracuzzo repeatedly objected to opening statements by Jeffrey Glass, Wyne's attorney.

"If this is indicative of the way this trial is going to go, it's going to be a long trial," Oftedal said of proceedings already slated to run three weeks.

In the preceding months, and again during the opening statements, the two sides quarreled over how much or how little of Wyne's trial could be about gangs.

The first attempt to seat a jury collapsed in early February. Prosecutors then objected to Glass' references to the History Channel program "Gangland" and an episode about Top 6, whose 12 leaders were busted in 2008 after nearly a decade of murders, robberies and drug dealing as far south as Boca Raton.

The State Attorney's Office accused Glass of tainting the first jury pool by seeking to "demonize" all of the victims and witnesses in the Wyne case as gang members, a defense strategy that would result "in an inherently unfair and prejudicial trial for the state."

Prosecutors want to make it about men who were ambushed while they were innocently socializing one night — in retaliation for a previous killing.

"Rounds after rounds after rounds were unleashed on the people playing dominoes in the backyard," Caracuzzo said. "It's a place where everybody's just hanging out."


Before the trial, Oftedal sided in part with Glass, ruling the next pool of prospective jurors could be questioned about their awareness of Top 6. The judge, though, said he will limit the amount of gang-related references during the trial.

Glass told jurors the Lake Worth backyard victims were Top 6 members who were there to get their hands on a half-pound of marijuana. He said there are no witness accounts or proof that Wyne was one of the shooters.

"Not one piece of evidence identifies Charlie Wyne," Glass said, disputing the claims of a solid link from DNA.

Along with Wyne, two other men were charged in the attack. In 2009, Patrick Thompkins pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Thompkins was shot when one of the victims returned fire. A third defendant, Jarvis Jackson, is awaiting trial pending a review by the 4th District Court of Appeal.

Jackson, both prosecutors and Glass agree, is the main reason the killings occurred that night.

Jackson's brother, Jonquinton Jackson, was killed in an assault-rifle attack outside a Lantana Super 8 motel in September 2006. Authorities said Jarvis Jackson then vowed to "kill all the Haitians" because of his brother's death.

This ultimately led to the Lake Worth house gun battle, which killed three Top 6 members: founder Edson Marcel, 23, Edrice Fleurme, 29, and Monfred Pierre-Louis, 32.

Wilbertson Noelzinord — a Top 6 leader thought to be the main target of the shooting because he had previously snitched to police about Jackson — was critically wounded but survived.

"It was Jarvis Jackson's retaliation for the killing of his brother," Glass said.

While in federal custody later in 2007, Wyne confessed to a detective about participating in the hit for money, Caracuzzo said, listing the price at $5,000 for each dead body.

But Glass immediately tried to cast doubt on that statement, by accusing the detective of destroying his notes from his meeting with Wyne and typing it up by memory.

"We're left with the interpretation of the lead detective to do whatever he had to do to get a conviction," Glass said.

Wyne, formerly of Riviera Beach, will be behind bars regardless of how this trial unfolds. He's serving a 30-year federal prison sentence on three gun and drug convictions from 2008 — capping a life of crime that began with a robbery at age 10, records show.






another article...





WEST PALM BEACH — This morning marked yet another rocky beginning in the triple first-degree murder trial of Charlie Wyne, who once faced a possible death penalty for a 2007 Lake Worth backyard massacre at the height of what authorities called a gang war.
Attorneys delivered opening statements in the case to a panel of 12 jurors and three alternates. But the start of the case, which was only supposed to take part of the morning, lasted until lunch time as Circuit Judge Richard Oftedal had to take several breaks to listen as lawyers in the case argued over what they could and could not tell jurors.

Most of the issues surrounded Wyne’s defense attorney Jeffrey Glass mentioning prior gun battles between Wyne’s co-defendant, Jarvis Jackson, and members of alleged local street gang Top 6 — whose members were most of the victims in the Lake Worth shooting. This morning, after several objections from prosecutors, Oftedal cleared the courtroom of jurors for a while so both sides could argue further.

Prosecutors Cheryl Caracuzzo and Jill Richstone said they’d agreed that Glass could mention a prior shooting at a Super 8 Motel that claimed the life of Jackson’s younger brother, Jonquinton, but the other prior shootings were off limits.

Glass said he felt entitled to bring up the other shootings because Caracuzzo, in her opening statement to jurors, had referred to the shootings as retaliation.

“There’s no doubt that everyone knows that it was Jarvis Jackson’s retaliation for the killing of his brother,” Glass told Oftedal.

Caracuzzo didn’t dispute that, but said mentioning other shootings — including one at a mall and another on Interstate 95 — was going way out of bounds considering the judge already ruled them inadmissible in a hearing on Wednesday.

Two months ago, attorneys in the case were close to seating another jury when prosecutors asked Oftedal to toss the entire panel after Glass asked jurors whether any of them had seen the History Channel hit show “Gangland”’s documentary on Top 6 — a group Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw once characterized as the area’s most violent street gang. Prosecutors had previously objected to Glass’ mention of Top 6 several times, and Oftedal, who had ruled in the state’s favor on each of those prior objections, agreed with prosecutors that the panel had been tainted and sent them all home.

That delayed Wyne’s trial until a new round of jury selection began last week.

Part of Glass’ defense is to highlight the war between Wyne’s co-defendant, Jackson, and several members of Top 6. Investigators say Jackson had a beef with Top 6 member Wilbertson Noelzinord. But the feud led Jackson on a murderous rampage after the Sept. 2006 gun battle outside a Lantana Super 8 Motel left his older brother, Jonquinton, dead.

One of the men killed in the attack was 23-year-old Edson Marcel, believed to be one of Top 6’s founders. Edrice Fleurme, 29, and Monfred Pierre-Louis, 32, were also killed but not believed to be Top 6 members. Noelzinord was critically wounded but survived. Top 6 leader Futo Charles was in the yard at the time, but escaped without injury.

Wyne had originally faced a possible death penalty in the case, but prosecutors later dropped that pursuit. If convicted of the murder charges, Wyne faces life in prison.

Jackson is still awaiting trial, but a third man charged in the killings, Patrick Thompkins, accepted a 25-year plea deal in the case in 2007.