By Dave Sherwood
Tico Times Staff | dsherwood@ticotimes.net

Freedom of the press activists were biting fingernails alongside family members of the accused as judges read guilty verdicts yesterday in the murder case of radio journalist Parmenio Medina.

Infamous murder suspect Minor Calvo, a Catholic priest and host of the widely popular but now defunct Catholic radio station Radio María, was absolved of the murder charges, but convicted of fraud and sentenced to 15 years in jail.

Two other suspects in the case – Omar Chaves, a business partner at the radio station, and Nicaraguan-born Luis Alberto Aguirre, known as “El Indio” – were convicted of murder, sentenced to 47 and 30 years in jail, respectively.

The long-awaited verdict comes after almost seven years of investigation and deliberation and an almost soap opera-style Latin American drama that involved nine suspects, 110 witnesses, 800 pieces of evidence and countless threats and televised outbursts.

Journalist Parmenio Medina was shot point blank three times in the head and torso outside his home July 7, 2001, shortly after producing a series of critical investigative reports about the Radio María, which was founded and managed by priest Calvo and bankrolled by partner Chaves (TT, Jan. 9, 2004).

According to the verdict, from 1999 to 2001, the radio station received nearly $3 million in donations, the majority of which Calvo and Chaves used to pay for luxuries that included cruises to the Bahamas and Florida, fine clothes and dining, DirectTV, a jet ski, two housekeepers and favors for family and friends.

Unknowing donors believed the money was destined for the good causes that Calvo stumped in his radio show.

The case attracted the attention of international advocacy groups, including Amnesty International, which worried that poor investigation by authorities could have resulted in a lack of convicting evidence.

“Medina's murder was the first known murder of a journalist in modern Costa Rica, and it shocked that normally peaceful society. The authorities' apparent unwillingness to pursue those who ordered his killing is equally shocking,” said a spokesman for the group in 2003.

Despite public suspicions, judges said they were unable to tie Chaves to the murder, but found 15 years of jail time suitable considering the number of people whose “confidence he had betrayed.”