Confession by diplomat’s son challenged by lawyer

The police account of a confession the son of a Canadian diplomat apparently gave in a double killing in Florida makes little sense, his lawyer argues in a new bid to win the teen’s pretrial release.

Even if Marc Wabafiyebazu did talk about the crime, Miami police failed to inform him of his rights — meaning they obtained the alleged statements illegally, the lawyer says.

“The court’s heavy reliance on the improper confession is misplaced,” Michael Corey states in a petition to the District Court of Appeal. “The statements ... are almost uniformly contradicted by the undisputed physical evidence and witness statements.”

Wabafiyebazu, 15, of Ottawa is charged as an adult with felony murder in the shooting deaths of his 18-year-old brother Jean and another teenager. Police allege the gunfire erupted inside a Miami-area apartment on March 30 when the older sibling tried to rob a drug dealer.

Initially, a senior detective charged him with minor offences, but changed that to murder after his apparent confession to Juan Velez, a rookie officer, who was driving him to a detention centre.

By the officer’s own account, the distraught teen, who had just heard his brother was dead, offered 23 pieces of information in less than two minutes — something the lawyer calls “suspicious and implausible.”

Among other things, Velez said Wabafiyebazu told him that he and his brother had ripped off other drug dealers in Canada and Miami. He also apparently claimed to have shot at the fleeing drug dealer — which video shows did not occur.

“According to Velez, the entire ‘confession’ was allegedly given to him while he was driving his patrol car, with Marc sitting in the back seat behind a safety barrier, and with the police radio squawking on and off intermittently,” Corey states. “Officer Velez made no attempt to record this alleged confession or reduce it to writing.”

Instead, the officer dropped the teen at a detention centre, then returned to his detachment, where he told a detective about the alleged statements.

In denying Wabafiyebazu bail in June, Circuit Judge Teresa Pooler said she believed Velez.