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For this refugee, long road to freedom ended on death rowFORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - The dizzying taste of liberty, American style, proved too heady for Omar Blanco, a gum-chewing Cuban killer who became the first Mariel refugee locked up on Florida’s Death Row.“So far, so good; his name hasn’t crossed my desk, said Richard Dugger, superintendent at the Florida State Prison in Starke. “But there’s not a whole lot he can do down there in his 7-by-12 cell to make any trouble now.”But model conduct was far from the rule forthe potbellied 32-year-old Cuban’s 28-month American adventure, police records show. To many crime-weary Floridians and law officers, he is a symbol of the federal government’s inability to control the consequences of the boatlift.From the time Blanco, a convicted thief in Cuba, arrived aboard the 1980 “Freedom Flotilla,’’ until he was arrested this year for murder, he was charged with disorderly conduct, loitering, resisting arrest, battery, burglary and attempted second-degree murder.His sentence for battery was reduced to the 42 days he had served. He spent six additional months in jail until the attempted murder charge was dropped for want of a witness. He received two 99-year jail terms for burglarizing a Fort Lauderdale country club and terrorizing a custodian, but the incident occurred before the murder, and sentence was passed after he was already locked up.• From the time Blanco, a convicted thief in Cuba, arrived aboard the 1980 “Freedom Flotilla,” until he was arrested this year for murder, he was charged with disorderly conduct, loitering, resisting arrest, battery, burglary and attempted second-degree murder.Last June, a jury took less than 1% hours to find Blanco guilty of murdering a 41-year-old unarmed, helpless chef.“The whole business didn’t seem to bother him at all,” Broward Circuit Judge Stanton Kaplan recalled recently. “He was nonchalant, happy-go-lucky.“When I had to consider the death penalty, I couldn’t find any mitigating factors in his favor,” he added. “But there were several aggravating factors. One, Mr. Blanco showed absolutely no remorse. Two, he showed a complete disregard of the rights of others. A complete disregard. ’ ’Last January, John Ryan, an Irish immigrant, heard noises in his home and went to investigate. According to testimony, Blanco was already in the house; he had slipped into a bedroomOwhere Ryan’s 15-year-old niece, Thalia Vezos, was lounging on her bed reading a schoolbook on Greek mythology.The intruder held an automatic pistol to his lips, she later remembered. “Shhhhhh,” he whispered. “Amigo. Friend.”It was then that Ryan dove for Blanco’s gun, his niece said in court, and the Marielito fired. Ryan hurled himself on top of Miss Vezos to shield her from the bullets. He died as Blanco fired seven rounds into his prostrate body.“The girl later said she could feel the thud of the bullets ripping into her uncle, ’ ’ Kaplan said. . “I was offended by it, really offended,” said Broward County State Attorney Michael Satz. “Just the way the man was shot down in front of his niece gave me a personal interest in prosecuting the case.”In the bedroom, detectives discovered a leather purse containing Blanco’s driver’s license, Social Security card and food stamp identification.Wearing a gray jogging suit and pedaling a girl’s 10-speed bicycle, a perspiring Blanco was arrested less than two miles from the house, only 45 minutes after the killing.Led to the murder scene, he was unfazed. He claimed he had been cycling to sweat off a flabby stomach and that his wallet had dropped from his trousers earlier as he made love with a friend’s wife.Chemical tests turned up traces of gunpowder on his right hand, Satz said.At his trial, Blanco remained impassive, his jaws tirelessly working a wad of gum. When Miss Vezos pointed at him from the witness stand and said he was her uncle’s killer, Blanco’s only reaction was to arch his eyebrows slightly.The icy, defiant immigrant now awaits death by electrocution, but Kaplan, Satz and countless other Floridians still find the case deeply troubling. Blanco had not so much slipped through cracks in the system as he had shown that the government had no effective system to deal with the Mariel criminals.Blanco was first sent to the refugee camp in Fort Chaffee, Ark. In June, he was paroled into the custody of a former cellmate - interviews with Blanco had convinced the Immigration and Naturalization Service that the sad-eyed man was “resettle-able,” despite his robberyconviction.“You remember that time; it was a mess,” said INS spokeswoman Beverly McFarland. “We basically had only their word to go by. If a mass murderer said he hadn’t served any time, he might be let out onto the street.”The United States Catholic Conference, who arranged Blanco’s parole, lost track of him as soon as the Cuban took a $140-a-week job as a condominium maintenance worker in Miami.Months after Blanco was sent to prison for murder, Marta Naun, a Catholic Conference worker, was asked about the Cuban. “We can’t tell you where he is,” she said.rimrwmd D#8y N*ws
Newspaper Details
Fort Walton Beach Playground Daily News
Fort Walton Beach, Florida, US
Fri, Dec 03, 1982
Page 29
Full Page
Clipped by
Community F.
PA, USA 20 Apr 2023
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