A pastor credited with planting hundreds of churches with Florida Southern Baptists is slated to go on trial Monday for the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.

U.S. prosecutors allege Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 67, played a leading role in the 2021 plot that plunged the Caribbean country into chaos. He is charged in federal court in the Southern District of Florida with conspiring to kidnap and kill a person outside the United States, lead an expedition against a friendly nation and related offenses.

The Baptist pastor faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Sanon, a Haitian immigrant, was ordained in Missouri, attended Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and led the Haitian Church Planting Department for the Florida Baptist Convention before becoming embroiled in the conspiracy. He also had a medical degree from University Eugenio Maria de Hostos in the Dominican Republic and coordinated medical aid to Haiti for several religious nonprofits.

Friends and supporters describe Sanon as a man who “dedicated his life to God, his family, and the Haitian community for well over 30 years.” They say he is a “brave individual” who “poured his best into Haiti in hopes that one day poor people will be able to live.”

Sanon’s attorney, Zeljka Bozanic, told the Miami Herald that her client talked of becoming president of Haiti — but was neither aware of nor involved in plans to overthrow Moïse.

“We’re looking forward to proving our client’s innocence in this whole thing,” Bozanic said.

Co-defendants found guilty

Moïse was shot 12 times in July 2021, dying in the presidential palace. He was facing a legitimacy crisis and widely accused of corruption, secret deals with criminal gangs and plans to consolidate dictatorial power. He was also reportedly working to expose corrupt businessmen and politicians involved in smuggling cocaine to the U.S.

More than 30 people have been accused of plotting his death. Six co-conspirators have already pleaded guilty. Four more were tried together and found guilty earlier this year.

A South Florida jury heard 39 days of testimony in the latter case, with more than 40 witnesses. Jurors also reviewed photos of the assassination scene and looked at a 900-page summary of text messages and voice notes that prosecutors said showed the development and evolution of coup plans.

“This case is very simple,” U.S. Attorney Sean McLaughlin said during closing arguments. “This is a case about greed, arrogance and power.”

The jury deliberated for two days before returning a verdict.

Sanon’s case was separated from his co-defendants because of unspecified health problems. The court rejected another request to delay his trial further for health reasons this week.

List of weapons for ‘operation’

The jury selected for a new trial on Monday is expected to look at the same evidence in the case against Sanon.

Federal investigators found that Sanon participated in meetings in early 2021 to discuss regime change. One participant followed up with an email forwarded to Sanon with a list of equipment needed for the “operation,” according to Homeland Security Special Agent David Mondanaro.

On the list: M4 rifles, AK-47s, M-60 machine guns, hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades, helmets, gas masks, bulletproof vests and $13,000 of ammunition.

That summer, about 20 Colombians with military training were recruited to provide security for Sanon. According to Mondanaro, the men were told Sanon was seeking a position of “significant political power” in Haiti.

Sanon also allegedly signed a contract with the Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy LLC, a Florida company, for 20 ballistic vests. According to the federal indictment, he arranged to send the military-grade equipment to Haiti and falsified customs documents by describing the vests on government forms as medical equipment and school supplies.

The Haitian government raided Sanon’s home in Haiti as well. Agents there said they found 20 boxes of bullets and a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency cap, similar to the ones worn by the mercenaries who shot Moïse.

In some of the messages discussed in the previous trial, however, conspirators talked about losing faith in Sanon’s leadership. They ultimately decided the man they called “Kumbe,” “Pumba” and “Bubba” was not competent to lead a private military and establish a new order in Haiti.

Testimony showed that he was excluded from some conversations as plans evolved. Plotters turned their hopes to Haitian Superior Court Justice Windelle Coq Thélot for potential leadership.

‘Completely gullible’

Friends and family in Florida believe Sanon was duped. One told the Associated Press in 2021 that Sanon was “completely gullible.”

Sanon came to the U.S. as a child and had a conversion experience in New York City at 17, according to Florida Baptist Convention records. He and his wife moved to Missouri in 1991, so Sanon could take a position at St. Mary’s Hospital in East St. Louis, Illinois. Three years later he transitioned into full-time ministry and became a pastor at the nearby First French-Speaking Baptist Church.

He moved to Florida in 1997 and appears to have managed multiple mission agencies and nonprofits; running medical clinics, distributing resources, planting churches and even building a church in Port-au-Prince.

A Florida pastor who worked with Sanon told news outlets he had every confidence the man he knew would “stand in the breach for his country.” But he said that did not mean Sanon would take part in a “brutal crime of murder, knowing that being associated with that would send him to the pits of hell.”

Sanon did grow frustrated at times with the plight of the Haitian people and the failure of elected officials to make lasting changes. In YouTube videos from 2011, after a devastating earthquake, he said corrupt government officials stole the relief funds.

Sanon said the country needed new leadership.

“There is hope coming in,” he said. “I want to bring them the new hope that they need to have to have a better life.”

Now prosecutors will try to prove he tried to do that with a team of mercenaries, several shipments of weapons and hundreds of text messages. The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks.

Daniel Silliman is senior reporter/editor at The Roys Report. He began his two decades in journalism covering crime in Atlanta and has since led major investigations into abuse and misconduct in Christian contexts. Daniel and his wife live in Johnson City, Tennessee