Honduran court sets new date: Angie Pena trial verdict postponed
Judges cited an absent interpreter and evidence review to push the decision back to November 20, a move critics say adds to the case's delays.
By Rebecca Foster ·
A court in Honduras pushed back the verdict in the sex-trafficking trial of four men connected to the 2022 disappearance of Angie Pena. The judges set a new decision date for November 20. They cited the need to review evidence and the absence of a court interpreter who was traveling abroad. The ruling was originally scheduled for Monday.
Pena vanished on January 1, 2022, after leaving West Bay on the island of Roatan on a jet ski while on vacation with her family. Investigators initially treated the incident as a potential accident at sea. The case shifted to a trafficking probe when officials located her jet ski in Belize, approximately 170 kilometers away. In August 2022, police found a minor in a Roatan house occupied by one of the defendants. That defendant, Gary Lee Johnston, was later sentenced to 32 years in a separate case involving commercial sex trafficking and child pornography.
Four men stand trial in the current proceedings. Harold Green and William James Murdock, both US citizens, face human-trafficking charges. Johnston and Honduran citizen Gustavo Trejo are accused of criminal association. Honduran authorities have also requested an Interpol notice for US citizen Antony Frank Grayson. The public prosecutor’s office describes the suspects as part of a network involved in drug and sex trafficking, including crimes involving minors. The office alleges that police and at least one judge helped facilitate this network, though it did not name the specific officials.
Defense attorneys have denied the men’s involvement and asked for acquittals. The trial has drawn comparisons to the crimes of the late Jeffrey Epstein due to the alleged trafficking of women and girls. Kenia Paz, a lawyer for the Legal Team for Human Rights representing Pena’s family, noted that many other victims remain silenced. Her team has criticized the lack of transparency, pointing out that the trial was not open to the press or the public.
Former Honduran Vice Minister of Security Julissa Villanueva posted on X that the delay fuels perceptions of impunity and prolongs the suffering of affected families. She told The Associated Press that prosecutors mishandled the case from the start with a tunnel vision approach. She added that there are connections to larger networks that need to be made public for the family to achieve justice. The death of key protected witness Dereck McNeil in August also raised concerns. In videos released after his death, McNeil alleged corruption within the ATIC, a special unit of the prosecutor’s office, claiming it leaked case information and had links to drug networks. The ATIC director denied these claims and stated the unit did not investigate Pena’s disappearance.
The next step in the legal process is the court’s decision on November 20. Until then, the four defendants remain in custody while the judges complete their review of the evidence.
