Accused ''Joe Cool'' killer to plead guilty, likely closing the sensational case

An Arkansas man accused of fatally shooting four Miami Beach charter boat members on the high seas indicated in a court motion filed Thursday that he plans to change his plea to guilty on July 28 - closing the book on the sensational case.

Kirby Archer, 36, was charged along with Guillermo Zarabozo, 20, of Hialeah, with the four slayings after they chartered the Miami Beach sport fishing boat, Joe Cool, for a one-way trip to Bimini last September.

Among those murdered were the boat captain, his wife, his half brother and the first mate.

Archer's defense lawyer, Allan Kaiser, declined to comment about the filing.

Archer had initially pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder charges. The Justice Department is still deciding whether to pursue the death penalty in the case, which could still happen even if Archer pleads guilty and his codefendant, Zarabozo, stands trial.

''Guillermo Zarabozo continues to maintain his innocence and he plans to proceed to trial,'' said one of his attorneys, William Matthewman said.

Prosecutors say the two defendants intended to go to Cuba, where Archer wanted to hide from a fugitive arrest warrant charging him with stealing $92,000 from Wal-Mart.

After Zarabozo and Archer were rescued at sea, both told federal agents that Cuban hijackers killed the charter boat crew and later let the two men go free.

But Zarabozo said in a major court statement filed in May that Archer used Zarabozo's gun to kill the four victims, before dumping their bodies into the Atlantic Ocean. That admission reinforced a similar story Zarabozo had told an inmate at the Federal Detention Center in Miami just weeks after the slayings.

The victims -- Jake Branam, 27; his wife, Kelley Branam, 30; Branam's half-brother, Scott Gamble, 35; and first mate Samuel Kairy, 27, all of Miami Beach -- were never found. The Branams left behind a then 2-year-old daughter and a 4-month-old son.

The government's case, which was expected to go to trial later this summer or fall, was viewed at first as mainly circumstantial because it lacked the victims' bodies, murder weapons or other direct evidence to link the slayings to Zarabozo and Archer.


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