Inside Danny Varela's bedroom before authorities raided his house, a bed covered in black sheets and Playboy bunny pillows sat to the left of a large black poster showing bundles of cash piled nearly ceiling-high.

Money, and the drugs that Varela and his crew allegedly sold to get it, have been a constant undercurrent throughout four weeks of government witness testimony in the federal death penalty trial involving the murders of Jose Luis Escobedo and his young family.

Family slain

Jose and Yessica Escobedo with sons Luis Julian (left) and Luis Damian (right). Husband, wife and two children from Greenacres found shot to death off Florida’s Turnpike in northern Port St. Lucie. More news, photos

Neither Varela, nor his girlfriend, Liana Lee Lopez, are charged in the murders, but they are facing drug and gun charges along with Daniel Troya and Ricardo Sanchez, the two men charged with crimes connected to the slayings.

Prosecutors are now near the end of their case against the four after calling dozens of witnesses and presenting overwhelming evidence that the group was responsible for pushing large quantities of cocaine throughout South Florida, toting guns and sometimes using them to carry out the violence that had been a part of their lifestyle.

Palm prints from toll receipts have also placed Troya and Sanchez near the scene of the Escobedos' deaths along Florida's Turnpike and Sanchez in the family's SUV after the killings.

But prosecutors will likely conclude their case Monday without providing jurors with a murder weapon or anything close to eyewitness testimony of who shot Escobedo, his 25-year-old wife Yessica and their 3- and 4-year-old sons, Luis Damian and Luis Julian.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Cartlon in opening arguments told jurors that Escobedo worked as a supplier for Varela and was killed with his family for two reasons - to erase a drug debt and for the drugs he was carrying with his family in their SUV at the time.

Since then, the strongest testimony to tie the men directly to the crime scene has come from informants - namely Kevin Vetere, a former roommate of the four in the home they called "Thug Mansion."

Vetere told jurors that he helped Sanchez, Troya and Varela hide the Escobedos' SUV the morning after the murders and confronted Troya about his involvement when he later found out about the murders.

Vetere, another one of Troya's friends, Melvin Fernandez, and jail informant Carlos Rodriguez all presented to jurors testimony of at least partial confessions from Troya, though the only such reference in regards to Sanchez was a conversation in which Vetere said Sanchez flaunted a gold chain and asked him if he was willing to "knock off the next big-timer" to get one.

In opening arguments, one of Troya's attorneys Ruben Garcia tried to exploit the lack of eyewitness testimony, asking jurors to replace the word "impartial" in their deliberations for one much shorter: fair.

"There's a toll booth card with his palm print on it. But what happened in between? There's a gap," Garcia said.

Though the theft of drugs was listed as one of the motives, U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley at one point told prosecutors that there had not been any evidence in court to show that there were, in fact, drugs inside the Jeep at the time of the murders.

"Where is the evidence so far that the killings were a furtherance of the drug conspiracy?" Hurley asked on Feb. 11, during a conference outside the jury's presence.

Though Carlton alluded to statements he made in opening arguments about how the deaths were carried out to erase a drug debt, it was in response to Hurley's question that he explained Varela and his crew owed money to Escobedo for drugs that had been seized when Sanchez and Lopez were arrested on drug charges in two separate incidents over the summer.

Defense attorneys instead have offered the theory that the Escobedos were killed by Mexican drug cartel members seeking retribution for monies Jose Escobedo owed.

Jurors until this point have not heard about a phone call Escobedo allegedly made to his brother Manuel shortly before he was killed, saying he thought he was being followed by one of Varela's people in a van and urging him to call police.

They did, however, hear testimony about phone records before and after the murders that seem to provide a timeline of calls between Escobedo, Sanchez, Troya and Varela that fit the prosecution's theory of what happened the night of the killings.

Jurors also heard testimony from one of Varela's longtime customers, Malik Mullino, who worked undercover for the DEA after the murders to help bring Varela and the others down. Investigators used recordings of a drug transaction - ones prosecutors played for jurors - to eventually raid the groups' alleged drug den, where they found more drugs and weapons.

Testimony from Vetere and other informants strongly tied the group to guns. Even Lopez, against whom the gun evidence is weakest, suffered from the testimony of her one-time friend Elvia Castillo. Castillo told jurors she saw Lopez carry a shotgun one night as she searched for intruders in Varela's former townhouse after Escobedo and Lopez had been robbed inside.

Prosecutors are expected to finish presenting their case Monday. Closing arguments could begin as early as Wednesday.

Tags: Escobedo, familyslain, turnpike escobedo

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 at 9:39 pm and is filed under Fort Pierce, Stuart. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.