Mesac Damas, the self-confessed killer of his wife and five children in jail/ Prosecutors have released more gruesome details in the murders/ Mesac Damas makes wild appearance in Collier courtroom/ Damas wants to represent himself at trial

Florida authorities were searching Sunday for a 33-year-old man after his wife and five children were found dead in their Naples home. The bodies of Guerline Damas, 32; Michzach, 9; Marven, 6; Maven, 5; Megan, 3; and Morgan, 11 months, were discovered Saturday, Rambosk said.

Authorities have been unable to locate Mesac Damas, who possibly left the country Friday morning and may be in Haiti, Capt. Chris Roberts of the Collier County sheriff's department said Sunday at a news conference.

"We don't see at this point any indication of an individual out in the neighborhoods committing additional crimes or homicides, but certainly we will look at every opportunity," Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said at an earlier news conference.

There had been a "handful" of domestic disturbance calls to police since 2000 involving the Damas couple, with the latest resulting in the arrest of Mesac Damas in January, Roberts said. Mesac Damas pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor battery against Guerline Damas in June, and Roberts said he does not think Mesac Damas served any jail time for the crime.

"We are still talking to people that knew the family and obviously the ultimate information we need is not so much what happened in the past but what happened when these people died," Roberts said.

The six bodies were found Saturday at about 6:30 p.m., a day after police had visited the home to check on the family, Roberts said. When a family member had not heard from a resident at the home, the family member asked authorities on Friday to do a welfare check on the house, Roberts said. Responding police knocked on the door but got no answer, he said, but officers saw no indications to arouse their suspicions.

The following morning, the family member became more concerned and filed a missing persons report, which authorities took, Rambosk said.

Later, authorities requested from property management a key to the house and an authorization to enter.

"When we did, we found the bodies of the individuals," he said.

"I can tell you that in no uncertain terms this is the most horrific and violent event this community has ever experienced. This is the worst of the worst."

He would not release the manner of death.

Rambosk said authorities had recovered Mesac Damas' vehicle at Miami International Airport, and they believe that he left on a flight to Haiti on Friday.

What a chickchit spineless piece of a man. A front row seat in hell is too good for this bastard, jmo.

So we extradite him back from Haiti, he will have rights as a MURDERER! He will get a trial, appeals! I am sick to death of the likes of the SCUMBAG & Chris Coleman MURDERING their own children!

This man deserves to be TORTURED! People want to argue that we are a HUMANE SOCIETY, but, murdering 5 innocent children is NOT A HUMANE ACT! These cases make my blood boil.

Sorry for the rant. It is Monday & I already had a headache! :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

The worst of the worst LE said.... why include the lives of innocents in your insanity? To take the life of an 11 month old... this is senseless and I dread hearing how this poor family was murdered.

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The father of five children who were found murdered along with their mother in their Florida home has been arrested in Haiti, police said on Monday.

Mesac Damas, 33, was arrested near the airport in Port-au-Prince after his 32-year-old wife and their children aged 11 months to nine years were found slain Saturday in North Naples, on the west coast of the US state of Florida, police said.

Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk described it as "the most horrific and violent event this community has ever experienced."

Local police in Florida said earlier they believed the father had taken a flight to Haiti on Friday, and described him as a "person of interest" in the case.

Police said the child victims included three boys, age nine, six and five, a girl age three and a baby girl 11 months old.

The couple were said to have a history of marital problems and domestic violence.

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Yep, and on JVM - CPS was at their home 3 days before the murders. CPS said the kids looked well fed. Another case of pure b.s.

And he has a record for DV on his wife. Got Community Service, $600 fine, 12 months probation and was supposed to go to Anger Management. That worked like a charm, huh? :mad:

This guy is blaming the Devil and his Mother-in-LAW!
Wants a speedy trial so he can be buried with the family he murdered.

Sorry WRAP I have no link yet, I heard it on HLN

NiteSpinR wrote:This guy is blaming the Devil and his Mother-in-LAW!
Wants a speedy trial so he can be buried with the family he murdered.

Sorry WRAP I have no link yet, I heard it on HLN

This post had me in tears, then this garbage about wanting to be buried with his family. THAT really pisses me off. I hope he isn't buried with in 500 miles of them. Wait ... make that 5,000!

this is indeed a serious tragedy, im just speechless. look at all those kids. ug.. speechless.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Mesac Damas confessed publicly Tuesday to killing his five children and wife in North Naples, and told the Daily News he wants to die and go to heaven.

“I want death,” Damas said from the back seat of the pickup truck transporting him to the Port-au-Prince airport, from where he was extradited to Miami late Tuesday.

The 33-year-old Naples man admitted to the brutal slayings of his five children and wife, Guerline Damas. The six bodies were discovered in the couple’s rented townhouse on Saturday night. Family members of the victims say their throats were cut.

Damas told a Daily News reporter in Haiti that he meant to kill himself but “lacked the courage.”

He blamed his wife and an evil spirit for causing the slayings, and he said he had found forgiveness in Christianity.

“Right now, my eyes are open,” he said.

He spoke as Haitian and American officials transported him to the airport from the Central Department of Judicial Policing, a single-level concrete station typically used for holding inmates to be deported.

As he was led through several long hallways, Damas covered his face and remained quiet when asked about the crime. He wore the same suit in which he was captured on Monday.

After stepping outside the police station, Damas was asked if he had anything to say. He paused, turned toward a Daily News reporter and told him that he wanted to be buried beside his family.

Asked if he had killed them, Damas replied in an even voice: “Yes, I did.”

Asked why, he replied “Only God knows.”

He would later say he killed his children because of their mother’s influence, as well as brainwashing and an evil spirit.

He said he didn’t kill himself as he originally planned because he didn’t have the courage, fearing that suicide would keep him out of heaven.

Earlier on Tuesday, a police official in Haiti spoke about Damas’ capture on Monday morning.

Frantz Thermilus, Director General of the Central Department of Judicial Policing, said roughly 30 of his officers surrounded the Port-au-Prince home in which Damas was staying with friends on Monday. Officers had received a tip, he said, which they relayed to those in charge of the search.

Thermilus said Haiti’s minister of justice called him on the day the family’s bodies were found, telling him to make Mesac Damas’ capture a priority.

“He knew this was going to be a big scandal,” Thermilus said.

The official said that Damas didn’t resist arrest, but told him that “evil things” caused him to kill his family. Other officers recalled similar conversations with Damas on Tuesday.

Louis Wilkins, 34, a Haitian police officer, said Damas also confessed to him about the killings during a conversation between the two.

Wilkins said Damas claimed his wife was unfaithful.

Tuesday’s transport of Mesac Damas turned into a spectator event at the police station, where officers and staffers gathered in the hallways and by the truck to witness the move. Agents from the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service joined Haitian National Police in the convoy.

A blue pickup truck, white SUV and brown pickup truck traveled the two blocks between the police station and airport.

The convoy ended on the tarmac of the airport, where an American Airlines flight awaited. The shackled Damas was led up the steps and into the plane, where he was to be seated next to two U.S. marshals.

He arrived later Tuesday in Miami, and was to return to Collier County overnight to be jailed.

Upon his return, Damas faces six counts of first-degree murder, which upon conviction would bring either life in prison or the death penalty.

Asked on Tuesday by the Daily News if he believed he would go to heaven, Damas replied, “Right now, yes, right now.”

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The effort to save the life of Mesac Damas gains full steam in 2010.

As the self-confessed killer of his wife and five children remains in a holding pattern in jail, his lawyers will begin a long — and expensive — quest to answer a crucial question: Who, exactly, is Mesac Damas?

Jurors may lean upon their discoveries to determine if the native Haitian should receive the death penalty or be spared, criminal attorneys say. The innocence-guilt phase of the trial will be straightforward, they forecast. The penalty phase, comparable to a second trial, will be hard fought.

“The only question is whether he lives or dies,” said Fort Myers criminal attorney John Mills.

Damas, 33, is charged with six counts of first-degree murder for the slayings of his wife, Guerline Damas, 32, and his five children. The children were Meshach “Zack,” 9; Maven, 6; Marven, 5; Megan, 3; and Morgan, 19 months.

The victims were discovered on Sept. 22 in various rooms of the family’s North Naples house. Each had a cut throat and multiple stab wounds.

Damas fled to Haiti, where he was captured days later. He told a Daily News reporter that his mother-in-law’s influence made him commit the killings and that he wanted to be executed. Prosecutors filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty in late November.

The suspect remains at the Naples Jail Center, where he is on suicide watch, Collier County Sheriff’s officials say. He is allowed no visitors, save his lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Mike Orlando.

Orlando’s road is a difficult and pricey one, according to Miami-Dade County assistant public defender Stephen Harper, who works capital cases in the 11th Judicial Circuit and has 25 years of experience as a defender.

“The defense has a tremendous burden of looking at everything about this man and his life and synthesizing what this man did, when he did it and why he did it,” Harper said.

That burden means identifying and paying experts, from psychiatrists to brain scan analysts to guides and translators in Haiti, where attorneys or their aides will dig deep into Damas’ past. Education records, medical visits, even a test for pollutants in the tap water at Damas’ childhood home in Haiti may be scrutinized.

“Literally from pre-natal,” said Mills.

Jurors must receive the fullest picture of Damas and his background if they are to judge his life, both attorneys said. In adherence to Florida law, should Damas be convicted, the panel will be asked to weigh mitigating factors presented by defense attorneys against the aggravating factors of the case, such as its brutality and the fact that children were killed. By majority vote, jurors will choose to recommend either death or life in prison. The judge will make the final decision.

The question of mental illness may loom large in the penalty phase. Questions of intent, self-control and awareness of right and wrong could be argued, Harper said.

Orlando will have help in his task. He’ll name a second attorney to aid in the defense, and he may hire or appoint someone to coordinate Damas’ background investigation. But he’ll be faced with difficult decisions of what he needs, how much he can spend and whether he should — or even can — ask for more money.

Public Defender Kathy Smith said that although her office will provide Orlando whatever he needs, a tight budget can’t be ignored. The office worked about 50,000 cases in 2008, she said. Funding is set at a flat rate by the Legislature.

“We have to make choices as to where we spend the limited dollars, keeping in mind the Florida Bar requirement, we prepare the mitigating factors,” she said.

When is one test too many? How much should attorneys pay for experts, and of what quality? Damas’ counsel may grapple with such questions.

“I’d say the defense is going to have to fight very, very hard to get the resources to defend this man,” said Harper.

It is a fight that will likely take place on paper, as Damas waits in his jail cell.

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It will be at least a year before a North Naples man stands trial on charges of slaying his wife and five young children, attorneys in the case said.

"With my experience, I think that would be pretty realistic," said Assistant State Attorney Richard Montecalvo, who is helping prosecute Mesac Damas, 33, during a hearing Friday.

The complex case will take that long to bring to trial because of the number of witnesses, at least 85 for the state alone, who need to be interviewed and the amount of evidence that needs to be reviewed, attorneys said.

Damas is charged with six counts of first-degree murder in the Sept. 17 deaths his wife, Guerline Dieu Damas, 32, and their five young children, ages 9 years to 19 months.

Damas is accused of slitting their throats in their North Naples townhouse, leaving the home awash in blood, according to statements of sheriff's deputies and crime scene investigators.

Damas, a U.S. citizen, fled to his native Haiti, where he was arrested a few days later and gave confessions to an FBI agent and the media before being returned to Collier County.

Deputy Public Defender Michael Orlando said he is considering an insanity defense for Damas, who has remained on suicide watch since being booked into the Collier jail in late September. If he opts for an insanity defense, Orlando said he will have to notify prosectors about his decision.

Orlando said he also must prepare for a penalty phase of the trial in the event the jury finds his client guilty. The state is seeking the death penalty.

Damas, dressed in a bright orange jail uniform, attended Friday's hearing, but remained silent.

Orlando said the stress of the case has taken its toll on his client. "He's lost a substantial amount of weight. I think he goes through periods of not eating as much as he should," the defense attorney said.

Orlando said the case also has been hard on Damas' family, including his mother, who wept while leaving the courtroom after the hearing, flanked by her husband and relatives.

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I don't understand. This man, in cold blood, stabs his wife and innocent children and is now in jail on suicide watch. Was he on drugs or drunk when he did this? Has he been psychologically tested?

Prosecutors have released more gruesome details in the murders of a North Naples woman and her five young children.

Guerline Dieu Damas, 32, and the children ranging in age from 9 years to 19 months, in September were found with their throats slit inside their townhouse.

Her husband and the children’s father, Mesac Damas, 33, was arrested in Haiti a few days later and returned to Collier County for prosecution on six counts of first-degree murder. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

The more than 300 pages of records released by prosecutors give additional detail of the deaths, with blood evidence collected throughout the townhouse.

The records also state that sheriff’s detectives contacted Miami police, who learned that Damas had boarded an American Airlines flight for Haiti on Sept. 18. Police found his GMC Yukon Denali in the parking lot of Miami International Airport.

Records seized by detectives show that Damas was also having financial troubles and in August was $834 in default on his car loan.

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The public defender assigned to Collier County homicides — including the case of Mesac Damas — is leaving the agency to open a private practice in Fort Lauderdale.

Michael Orlando will hand his successors’ 12 cases when he leaves July 9, he estimated. He believed eight or nine of them are homicides, including the Damas case.

“The work that I’ve done up to this point, I’ll fill in the attorneys that take over,” Orlando said of the case. “There might be some element of delay involved, but I couldn’t state that with certainty.”

Deputy Public Defender Kathleen Fitzgeorge, who heads the office’s homicide unit, will assume the Damas case, Public Defender Kathy Smith said. Fitzgeorge won’t relocate to the Naples office, where Orlando was based.

“Taking on any new cases obviously presents challenges, but she’s completely competent to take over the job,” Smith said.

Orlando joined the office 23 years ago, working first in Lee County before being moved to Collier County in 2000. He focuses on homicide and manslaughter cases, and he is certified to handle capital cases, such as Damas.

Orlando also supervises public defenders in Collier County, a task he said he enjoys, though not as much as the lawyering.

Some of his bigger cases include the 2002 trial of Roy Kipp, the Collier County sheriff’s deputy who killed his estranged wife and her lover, and the case of John Ballard, a Golden Gate man sentenced to death row for the 1999 slayings of his neighbors.

The Florida Supreme Court overturned Ballard’s conviction in 2006, freeing him. Kipp was spared the death penalty.

Orlando also recalls recent acquittals such as the case of Carlos Argueta, an Immokalee man charged in a drive-by shooting.

The Damas case was his biggest, though, at least by the number of deaths. Damas is accused of killing his wife and five children in their North Naples home last year before fleeing to Haiti. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Damas remains far from trial, as Orlando puts in the legwork on his client’s background, analyzing Damas’ past through private investigation and medical assessments.

The high-stakes nature of such cases is a big draw, Orlando said.

“It’s the challenge, it’s the complexity of them,” Orlando explained. “They’re basically the top of the sort of chain as far as criminal cases.”

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He said he killed them because of his MIL?? Did I read that correctly? Just what has he gone through that would give him license to slit his entire families throats? It shouldn't take a year to figure out if he is criminally insane or not. Whatever. He needs to get the DP. I hope he starves himself to death!!

A man who admitted to killing his wife and five children last year made an erratic court appearance Friday.

Before Mesac Damas was led in by armed deputies, Judge Franklin Baker warned the court that if there was reaction of any kind, he'd have the person escorted out.

Damas was citing scripture and singing as he was wheeled into the courtroom in a restraining chair.

He kept singing until his attorney and the judge asked him to calm down.

Damas sat still in the chair, his head turned toward the ceiling and his eyes closed for most of the hearing - but then toward the end the outbursts started again.

"It's been almost a year to be without my wife and my children. I miss them so much," said Mesac Damas.

Last September, Guerline Damas and the bodies of her five children were found strewn around the family's North Naples home. Their throats had been slashed.

In court today Damas asked to be executed.

"Make the call. Whoever is in charge of this, right now, go ahead, go for it. Turn on the switch," said Damas.

At today's hearing, Damas' new defense team told the judge they're still pouring over discovery documents in the case.

Prosecutors also gave an update on their part of the trial, saying they've spoken to 80-100 witnesses.

The defense asked for a psychological evaluation, and given Damas' demeanor in court, the judge agreed it was necessary.

Both the state and the defense team said the earliest this case could go to trial is next spring.

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The case of a North Naples man accused of killing his family remains at a standstill after he asked a judge Friday if he could represent himself at trial.

Mesac Damas, 34, will now have to undergo a third mental evaluation in the next few weeks to determine if he is competent to stand trial.

“I have the right to represent myself. It’s me and the Lord. No one else,” Damas said during the hearing. He is charged with six counts of first-degree murder in the slaying of his wife and their five young children inside their North Naples townhouse in September 2009.

“Jesus is the Lord. Give him your life,” Damas told Collier Circuit Judge Frank Baker.
Baker told Damas he will consider Damas’ request to represent himself after he undergoes the mental evaluation.

“I’ll make a decision, but not today,” Baker told the bearded Damas, who appeared in court in a bright-orange jail uniform and wearing handcuffs and shackles.
Baker scheduled another status conference for Feb. 4.

“Make sure you have Jesus in your life. God bless you all,” Damas said as he left the courtroom and was taken back to jail.

Damas has made such outbursts in the past.

“That’s why everyone questions his sanity,” said assistant Public Defender Neil McLoughlin, a member of Damas’ defense team.

Damas has had two other mental evaluations that conflict with each other, and Baker said he was appointing a third psychologist as a tie breaker.

If Damas is found competent to stand trial, there is a possibility the public defender’s office can still assist him even if Baker rules Damas can represent himself, McLoughlin said.

McLoughlin said the defense can’t start taking witness depositions unless Damas is found competent and is allowed to attend the proceedings to assist his attorneys.
Assistant State Attorney Richard Montecalvo said the prosecution is ready to proceed if Damas is found mentally competent.

Should Damas be found incompetent, the court would order he get treatment at a state facility until he is ready to stand trial, said Lee Hollander, a criminal defense attorney in Naples and Fort Myers.

Under Florida law, if he is not found competent within five years, the charges would be dropped — but they could be refiled if Damas was later found to be competent, Hollander said.

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Facing the death penalty on charges that he killed his wife and five children, Mesac Damas told a judge Friday that he doesn’t need lawyers and wants to represent himself.

“It’s me and the Lord,” Damas told Collier Circuit Judge Frank Baker. “That’s it. No one else.”

The request was part of a rambling pronouncement on Jesus, salvation and the Bible that interrupted a 30-minute status hearing in a case that has been slowed by questions about whether Damas is competent to participate in his own defense.

Baker said Friday he would appoint a third expert to evaluate Damas’ competency and set another hearing tentatively for Feb. 4.

Fort Myers psychologist Robert Silver conducted the first evaluation, and Assistant State Attorney Richard Montecalvo requested a second one.

Gainesville psychologist Michael Herkov, who conducted the second exam, delivered an opinion on Damas’ competency this week that differed from the first one, Montecalvo told Baker.

On Friday, Assistant Public Defender Neil McLoughlin asked Baker to appoint a third expert, saying it would avoid second guessing 10 to 15 years down the road about why a third opinion was not sought.

Outside the courtroom later, McLoughlin said it was important to “do everything 110 percent” in death penalty cases.

“He (Baker) doesn’t want to play games and we don’t either,” McLoughlin said.

Damas, 34, is charged with six counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of his wife, Guerline, 32, and five children: Meshach “Zack” Damas, 9; Maven, 6; Marven, 5; Megan, 3; and Morgan, 19 months.

Their bodies were found with their throats cut inside the family’s North Naples home in September 2009.

On Friday, Damas sat with his attorneys at a table in the front of the courtroom, which was crowded with people waiting for their cases to be called.

He sat silently with his hands folded in his lap until about the middle of the proceeding, when he addressed Baker as “Mr. Judge” and asked that he be allowed to represent himself.

“God is my lawyer,” Damas said, referring to Baker as “my brother.”

Gesturing with his cuffed hands, Damas went on to talk about a new world coming and to cite the correct Bible chapter and verse that warns against judging others to avoid being judged.

He thanked his attorneys for representing him and said they were doing a good job but told them “it’s not up to you right now.”

“It’s up to me and the Lord,” Damas said.

As Baker explained to Damas that he would take up his request at a later hearing, Damas turned toward news cameras and urged people waiting in the courtroom to find a good church and to give their lives to Jesus.

Baker got Damas’ attention back, telling Damas that he needed to explain how the case would proceed.

“It’s your room, do whatever you want,” Damas said to Baker.

Damas went silent again, closing his eyes and bowing his head, only to turn again toward the courtroom to continue preaching as Baker and attorneys talked about the next hearing date.

Turning back toward Baker, Damas said he didn’t see a ring on Baker’s finger and questioned whether he had found Jesus.

“Make sure you have Jesus in your life, my brother,” Damas told Baker.

Baker ended the hearing, but Damas wasn’t done sermonizing.

“God bless you all, my brothers,” Damas said as he stood to leave the courtroom.

He shuffled out the door and back to jail, talking about the second coming of the Lord and church.

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The mother of a slain woman will receive her $100,000 life insurance policy.
A Collier County judge ruled Tuesday that 53-year-old Thelicia Medor of Fort Myers should receive the money from a policy her daughter took out while working at Publix.
Medor's daughter, 32-year-old Guerline Dieu Damas and her five young children were slain Sept. 17, 2009, in their Naples townhouse. Medor was listed on the policy as the next beneficiary after Damas' children.

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A judge postponed the scheduled competency hearing for accused killer Mesac Damas on Thursday, citing defense counsel’s late receipt of a stack of records in the case.

Attorneys for Damas said they had yet to analyze 1,500 case documents they received Tuesday afternoon, most of them medical records.

Defense attorneys argued the records could be material to a competency, an effort to determine if Damas is capable of understanding and participating in his case.

The prosecution told Collier Circuit Judge Franklin Baker they merely forwarded one part of a larger stack of documents that were available to defense counsel at the Naples Jail Center in April. Assistant State Attorney Richard Montecalvo agreed to the postponement, “very reluctantly,” he told Baker.

“The fact of the matter is this case has stopped,” Montecalvo said. “And it shouldn’t be stopping.”

The hearing is now set for June 2 at 8:30 a.m.

Damas faces a potential death penalty on six counts of first-degree murder for the slayings of his wife and five children at their North Naples home in 2009.

The postponed hearing is the latest delay in the year-and-a-half old case. Among hold-ups, Damas’ attorneys have declined to conduct depositions before determining their client’s competency.

Baker again on Thursday pressed for depositions to begin in the case, particularly with professional or law enforcement witnesses such as forensic analysts and pathologists. Deputy Public Defender Kathleen Fitzgeorge again declined, but she attempted to reassure Baker that defense counsel was still working on peripheral aspects of the case.

Her team includes assistant public defenders Neil McLoughlin and Connie Kelley. Prosecutor Montecalvo was joined by Assistant State Attorney Dave Scuderi on Thursday.

Beyond procedural delays, Damas’ case is likely slowed by its own weight. Death penalty cases are complicated, and they receive great scrutiny after disposition. Judges have reason to tread lightly, for fear of creating an appealable issue.

A spokeswoman for the State Attorney’s Office later said the records in question have been available to attorneys at the jail. The psychiatrists who examined Damas would also be allowed to see the records, provided they have a court order.

The spokeswoman said prosecutors hand-delivered 1,000 pages of the documents to the defense on April 20, per discovery protocol. Defense attorneys then requested a second batch, of 1,500 records, be delivered earlier than protocol required. Prosecutors e-filed the documents on Tuesday.

“Again, these are copies that are always available at the jail,” the spokeswoman, Samantha Syoen, said.

Whether defense counsel knew the records existed is not clear; Fitzgeorge declined comment outside the courtroom.

Adding to the confusion of Thursday’s hearing, Damas repeatedly interjected as Baker and attorneys discussed matters. Upon entering the courtroom, shackled, he asked to speak.

Baker said he might let him speak at some point during the hearing, to which Damas replied, “You promise?”

The defendant resumed talking aloud minutes later, and he ignored repeated requests by Fitzgeorge and the bailiffs to remain silent.

“Sir, look at the judge,” one bailiff demanded.

“That’s no judge up there,” Damas responded.

Baker and attorneys finished the hearing by speaking over Damas, a difficult task given the volume of the defendant’s voice.

The judge gave attorneys three weeks to look through the discovery material. Three psychiatrists who examined Damas will also be allowed to update their reports in the next three weeks, Baker ordered.

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