Cross-Cultural Film: September 2009

Monday, September 21, 2009

Man wanted in Florida slayings detained in Haiti
Associated Press/AP Online

By JONATHAN M. KATZ
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haitian police on Monday detained a man wanted for questioning in the Florida slaying of his wife and their five children, including an 11-month-old infant.

Mesac Damas, wearing a blue suit over a white T-shirt, was seen standing in the back room of a police station near the Port-au-Prince airport with his hands restrained behind his back by plastic ties. Two officers confirmed it was Damas. They spoke on condition of anonymity because his capture had not been publicly announced.

Damas, 33, boarded a flight to Haiti from Miami on Friday, one day before the bodies of his wife and their children, ages 9 years to 11 months, were found slain inside their apartment in Naples, Florida, according to police.

Georges Huguens Dieu, a brother of the slain woman, came to the police station with photographs of his sister after hearing that Damas was in custody.

Damas was captured Monday morning by police outside a hotel in Port-au-Prince, the Caribbean nation's capital, according to several officers.

Investigators with the Collier County Sheriff's Office in southwest Florida said they had been working with the FBI to locate Damas, who is a person of interest in the slayings.

The victims were identified as Guerline Damas, 32, and her children: Michzach, 9; Marven, 6; Maven, 5; Megan, 3; and 11-month-old Morgan. Police would not say how they died.

Family members in Florida say they had urged Guerline Damas, a Haitian immigrant, to leave her husband because he was violent. Mackindy Dieu told The Associated Press that Mesac Damas was physically and verbally abusive toward his sister, choking her once as she was holding their infant.

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Mackindy Dieu, left, remembers his older sister Guerline Damas, as Dieu's girlfriend Tara Leandre, right. wipes tears from her eyes at his home in East Naples, Fla., on Monday, Sept. 21 2009. The husband of a woman found dead in a Florida apartment along with her five young children boarded a flight for Haiti, and police said Sunday the couple had a history of domestic violence calls to their homes over the past decade. (AP Photo/Naples Daily News, Greg Kahn)