A long wait for justice

February date set for suspect’s third trial in 2000 triple murder

Accused killer Pablo Ibar will get a third chance early next year to convince a jury he’s not guilty in the notorious executionstyle slayings of a Broward County nightclub manager and his two friends 23 years ago.

Lisa Porter, the new Circuit Court judge on the long-running case known as the Casey’s Nickelodeon murders, Thursday set Feb. 28 as the trial date. This will be the fifth time a jury hears the case.

Ibar, 45, was sentenced to death in 2000 for the home-invasion murders of Casimir “Butch Casey” Sucharski — the flashy former owner of the popular Pembroke Park bar who sometimes kept wads of cash in his boots — and Sharon Anderson and Marie Rogers, two women he invited to his Miramar home after a night of club-hopping.

The Florida Supreme Court threw out the conviction in Feb. 2016, finding that Ibar’s former defense attorney, the late Kayo Morgan, botched the case and didn’t adequately represent him.

His co-defendant’s conviction and death sentence had been thrown out in 2006.

“We are very pleased we were able to set a trial date today,” said Joe Nascimiento, one of Ibar’s defense attorneys. “Pablo looks forward to finally getting to start this trial.”

For Anderson’s sister, Deborah Bowie, this fifth round will have another layer of excruciating pain added to the ordeal. Her mother, Barbara Jones, died in June, and