The twisted tale of the Joe Cool boat murders reached what will presumably be its final chapter today, when the second defendant, Guillermo Zarabozo, was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences and 85 years in prison.
According to a New Times story written last year, Zarabozo got caught up with Kirby Archer, a man on the run after stealing $92,000 from his employer -- a Texas Wal-Mart -- and from his ex-wife, who alleged Archer had fathered a teenage girl's child and carried on a tryst with a high school boy.
Zarabozo and Archer had known each other since Zarabozo was 8 and reconnected when he was 18 and Archer had fled to Hialeah. On September 22, 2007, the two chartered a fishing trip aboard the Joe Cool. Once the boat was at sea, the pair shot and killed the captain, his wife, and two other crew members. Prosecutors theorize the pair was trying to reach Cuba.
Archer was convicted and sentenced last October. Zarabozo, now 21, was convicted in a re-trial this past February.
