FBI agent Joseph Hall, on the witness stand Wednesday for his second
day in the Cuban spy trial, testified in exhausting detail about ID cards
and other items confiscated from the Hollywood studio apartment of
defendants Ruben Campa and Luis Medina.
The names Campa and Medina were fake, appropriated from death
certificates of babies who died in California in the late 1960s, both
sides agree. The men used the stolen identities to get everything from
driver's licenses to Social Security cards, Hall testified.
Medina -- real name Ramon Lavaniño -- even got a U.S. passport
and registered with the Selective Service under his assumed identity. He's
a Cuban citizen, not an American. His attorney, Bill Norris, described him
in opening statements as a Cuban who is ``proud of his country
. . . and committed to defending it.''
Campa's real name is Fernando Gonzalez. The FBI found some 31 death
certificates among his belongings, Hall testified.
Prosecutors allege that Campa and Medina were Cuban intelligence
operatives using false identities and fake life stories to give them cover
while in the United States.
Medina had paperwork showing he was a shoe salesman, Hall
testified. Campa had a business card identifying him as a desktop
publisher.
The five defendants on trial before U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard
were arrested Sept. 12, 1998, and charged with acting as unregistered
agents of Cuba. Prosecutors also have accused Medina, Gerardo Hernandez
and Antonio Guerrero of penetrating U.S. military installations in a bid
to pass defense secrets to Havana.
The man accused of being the ringleader, Hernandez, faces the
most-serious charge: conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of four
Brothers to the Rescue fliers who were shot down by Cuban MiGs in
1996. Charged in other counts is Rene Gonzalez.
Defense attorneys acknowledge their clients were working for Cuba. But
they insist that the alleged spies did not pass classified information to
their bosses or do anything to harm the United States.FBI agent outlines moves, tools of accused Cuban spies
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald