Jury’s decision delayed in 2007 triple-homicide case

FORT MYERS, Fla. – A jury couldn’t reach a verdict after deliberating for several hours Thursday evening in the case of Wesnel Isaac, who’s accused of the brutal 2007 execution of three Bonita Springs men caught in the middle of a drug turf war.

Deliberations began shortly after 6 p.m., after an hour of instructions from the judge.

The state prosecution rested on the testimony of two co-defendants who each served eight years for having been accessories to Isaac’s alleged crimes. The co-defendants said they witnessed Isaac kill the three victims — Scott Highfill, Reid Graham and Bobby Barckley.

The bodies of Highfill, Graham and Barckley were discovered in an abandoned car in Lehigh Acres.

Defense lawyers argued that the co-defendants, who were accused of helping Isaac kidnap his victims, could not be trusted.

Isaac himself then took the stand and told the jury he never knew the three men he’s accused of killing.

The jury will reconvene Friday morning at 9:00 a.m.

Isaac became the first person from Southwest Florida to make the U.S. Marshals’ top 15 most wanted list when he fled to Haiti after the killings. He fled to his home country of Haiti shortly after the murders and hid there for seven years until he was taken into custody in 2014.

He faces life in prison if convicted.