Rhett Fuller appeal begins after two decades

The visiting Court of Appeal is in session for the third week and Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay and his client, Rhett Fuller, are before the court fighting extradition to the United States in a case that goes back for almost two decades. Fuller has been on the U.S. wanted listed since the 90’s for the murder of Larry Miller, who was shot and killed in Dade County, Florida in 1989 during a drug deal gone bad. Courtenay is asking the court to review the Fuller case on seven grounds. These include whether there exists any law that gives the Foreign Minister the power to request a Magistrate to issue a warrant for the arrest of anyone wanted for extradition; that his detention was unlawful; the allegation of the willful delay by the U.S government to have the matter brought against Fuller eight years after the incident, and mere lack of evidence. Reading from statements presented at trials at the Supreme and Magistrates’ Courts, Courtenay informed the Court of Appeals that the U.S. government knew all along that Fuller was in Belize. This was brought out in countless references Fuller made of conversations he has had with U.S. law enforcement agencies since the murder. Fuller had even cited two occasions when a Detective Ed Hill of North Miami Beach wanted to strike a deal with him to testify against one Alex Napolitano and Carlos Cuello. But Napolitano and Cuello had instead become prosecution witnesses and had fingered Fuller as the triggerman in the fatal shooting. To bolster his arguments, Courtenay argued that the fact that the U.S. never made it known that they had been in contact with Fuller is not only a breach of good faith but of the Extradition Treaty. Fuller, an entrepreneur, started out his own cabinet-making business two years ago and employs four people. His appeal is being heard before President of the Appeal’s Court, Justice Elliott Mottley and Justices Dennis Morrison and Boyd Carey. The Attorney General is represented by Priscilla Banner.