U.S. Department of Justice

Two Haitians plead guilty to taking a 10-year-old American child hostage in Haiti

Washington, D.C. - Two Haitian men, Charles Dorius and Vava Pierre, have pleaded guilty to taking an American child hostage in Haiti, U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Wainstein and Alice S. Fisher, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice, announced today.

Dorius, 24, and Pierre, 30, both of Haiti, pleaded guilty today to the hostage-taking charge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Reggie Walton. The child victim, who is a U.S. citizen, was living in Port au Prince, Haiti, with her family. The defendants face a maximum sentence up to life imprisonment under the Hostage-Taking statute. Both men will be sentenced on November 13, 2006.

According to the government’s evidence, on March 24, 2006, at 7:30 in the morning, the victim, a ten-year-old American, along with her sister and mother were backing out of their drive-way in Haiti, on the way to school. Suddenly, Pierre and another man approached the car with guns drawn, and removed the mother and the victim’s sister from the car. The victim’s mother implored the kidnapers to take her and not her little girl. Dorius, who had been waiting across the street, Pierre and the other man got into the car with the little girl. Dorius drove the car while Pierre and the other man still had their guns drawn.

Hours later, the three men arrived at the house with the child. Once there, a fourth man arrived. Pierre and the fourth man took the child into the house and led her to a room where the door was securely closed. While the fourth man waited at the house with the child, Dorius, Pierre and the third man got back into the car to get rid of it and to demand ransom money from the victim’s mother. The ransom which was going to be demanded was for $100,000 U.S. dollars. Before the ransom money could be demanded, the Haitian National Police spotted the car and pursued them. The kidnapers abandoned the car and ran. During the chase, the third man was killed and shortly thereafter, Pierre and Dorius were arrested.

In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Wainstein and Assistant Attorney General Fisher praised the hard work of the FBI’s Extraterritorial Squad, in particular lead case agents Robert Webb and Kenith Jett, Special Agent Ed Cruz, the FBI Legal Attache and ALAT based in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, the Haitian National Police and the United Nations Civil Police, the Haitian Ministry of Justice, the ICE Office in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Anne-Marie Casella at the American Citizen Services at the U.S. Consulate in Haiti, and the staff of the U.S. Embassy in Port au Prince, Haiti. Lastly, they acknowledged the efforts of Assistant U.S. Attorney Julieanne Himelstein and Trial Attorney Thomas P. Swanton of the Counterterrorism Section of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, who are prosecuting the case.