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Feb 23, 2006
(FLORIDA) -- Former Miami cop and champion bodybuilder Gil Fernandez Jr. was convicted in 1991 of the 1983 brutal murders of three men in the Everglades in a drug deal gone wrong. But the only man Fernandez has ever admitted to killing is the violent person he used to be.
Fernandez's criminal trial rocked the state of Florida , captivated the media, and made headlines around the world.
15 years later the Gil Fernandez story is back in the news in the upcoming book " Danger Road: A true crime story of murder and redemption " authored by Fernandez's defense attorney John P. Contini.
BOOK SUMMARY
Danger Road is the incredible true story of three drug dealers who were brutally murdered in 1983 on Danger Road in the Florida Everglades. Lured into a phony drug deal each victim hoped would be his big retirement score, they allegedly found themselves at the business end of a gun wielded by a Miami-Dade police officer. But police and prosecutors say Officer Gilbert Fernandez Jr. and his cohorts weren't there to arrest the drug dealers. They were there to kill them and steal their nine kilos of cocaine.
Danger Road details the transformation of Fernandez, a former Mr. Florida bodybuilding champion and black belt in karate, who became a Christian during the intervening years between the 1983 murders and his subsequent arrest in 1990.
This was no courthouse conversion. The man who was once named " Miami 's Meanest Cop" had been a Christian for several years by the time of his trial. He no longer abused and intimidated detainees and others he came into contact with. And he no longer managed the violent ring of bodybuilder-debt collectors out of the notorious Apollo Gym, which he eventually owned. Now he lived to convert people at his gym to faith in Jesus Christ.
But in 1991 Fernandez found himself on trial for his life.
Does God give second chances? In Danger Road you'll discover why He's called the "God of the Second Chance."
Read the article about Gilbert Fernandez from the Jan 13th issue of the New Times Broward-Palm Beach. Link: http://www.newtimesbpb.com/Issues/2006-01-12/news/feature.html .
Here's a sample [be advised: the article reflects the opinion and point of view of the journalist, and not of author and attorney John Contini]:
"I haven't been to this area in nearly 15 years," says John P. Contini as he looks for the site where his former client, Gil Fernandez Jr., executed three men and dumped their bodies in 1983.
It's a cool December morning, and Contini, a 48-year-old criminal defense attorney with white hair and a gentle demeanor, is traveling down U.S. 27 on a 20-mile trip from his home in Weston to a spot of marshland just south of the Broward County line.
On April 1, 1983, Fernandez made a similar drive on U.S. 27, which runs along the edge of the Everglades. At the time a Miami cop and competitive bodybuilder, Fernandez was with two fellow bodybuilders in a white 1980 Grand Prix. Also in the car were three blindfolded, bound, and gagged drug dealers -- Richard Robertson, 26, Walter Leahy Jr., 25, and Alfred Tringali, 31. Fernandez took the three men to a secluded canal and shot them to death.
Contini is here, at the 22-year-old scene of the gruesome triple murder, to gain some perspective. Contini is not only finishing a book about his complicated relationship with Fernandez, but is also aiding what is likely to be Fernandez's final appeal.
Contini agrees that his relationship with Fernandez is unique. In 1990, then a 33-year-old hotshot criminal defense attorney, Contini took Fernandez on as a client and basked in the high-profile case's media spotlight. It was a stunning case -- Fernandez was a cop turned murderer who claimed to have found God. "My guy is going to walk," Contini bragged to a reporter.
He was wrong. A jury found Fernandez and his Mob boss, Hubert "Bert" Christie, guilty of killing three men. But while Contini lost in court, he claims he gained in life. During the six-week trial, Fernandez became Contini's spiritual guide. The attorney, with the help of a man on trial for murder, experienced a religious awakening.
Click on the link below to read the rest of "Muscles, Murder, and a Messiah" in the New Times Broward-Palm Beach, by Trevor Aaronson.
PART II: http://www.newtimesbpb.com/Issues/2006-01-12/news/feature.html
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