Many descendants have taken on the role of storytelling, but educators still face a challenge: How do you teach the history in a way that is engaging to students?

Two local artists turned to music.

Musician Jeff Jacob proposed the idea of a songwriting session for students — using Holocaust survivor testimonies to create an original, fully produced piece — to Ali Shrago-Spechler, a visual artist who is director of The George Gottlieb Institute at the David Posnack Jewish Community Center in Davie.

Together, they created “A Survivor’s Song” and offered it to history students from Cooper City High School and Everglades High School and their teachers through the Gottlieb Institute’s Testimony to Teach program.

“What better way to embody history than through music?” Shrago-Spechler said. “I think it’s a fantastic vehicle because it allows the kids to engage in every way. They are hearing it, writing it, singing it and, in that way, the history becomes a part of them and they become witnesses to it.”

The students sat through two initial sessions where they heard testimonies from first-, second- and third-generation Holocaust survivors. They then participated in a live songwriting session on Wednesday, Feb. 4, at the David Posnack JCC. With a small stage and mood lighting, Jacob set it up to look and feel like an MTV “Unplugged” session from back in the day.

Students took what they learned from the survivor stories to write song verses alongside first-generation survivor Ivan Gluck. The result was a fully-produced song titled “You Can Be a Candle.”

Song lyrics include poignant parts of the survivor’s experience, such as: “In the basement my life spared, tomorrow another day to fear,” and “Can’t find my slumber, with others in distress. We still held belief, cause we held each other dear.”

After the writing was complete, the students recorded parts of the song in an on-site mobile music studio, alongside local musicians and JCC staff.

“Bringing people together from all these walks of life felt really beautiful and impactful,” said Jacob, who has spent the past decade focused on purpose-driven music. “When it was done, I had such a rush of joy feeling like most people in this room were hopefully going to walk away with a memory that maybe they retain a little bit better and speak out when [they] see something like this happening in the future.”

How it started

Through Testimony to Teach, Shrago-Spechler uses different art forms to explain the story of the Holocaust to students.

The program began two years ago with Broward County students creating a short film based on Holocaust testimonies. Shrago-Spechler felt the students weren’t as immersed in the process as she would have liked.

“I just find when you’re dealing with hard histories, it can be really difficult to make a lasting impact on the kids,” she said. “ When you’re dealing with intense ideas and sad ideas, a lot of the time your brain kind of blocks the trauma off to protect you so the kids don’t end up engaging as much.”

And with visual art, she added, kids can be critical of themselves if they feel they aren’t artistic. Songwriting, however, was a perfect fit for the program.

“With music, anyone can write a song or write a verse or do rhythm, so we felt like it was a great way to bring this history to the kids,” she added.

A lasting impression

Before involving the students, Jacob, who is also the executive director of Temple Beth El of Hollywood, created the chorus, which he used as the jumping-off point for the live songwriting session.

He sang lead vocals alongside a band of six others, including Timothy LaRoque from the nonprofit Guitars over Guns, and Don Hicks, who plays the fiddle and is part of the Jewgrass Revival band at Temple Beth El.

In addition to the song, Jacob also plans to create accompanying videos. One will be a 3.5-minute music video with imagery from the live songwriting session, the other will be a longer mini music documentary that will include interviews and more insight into the program. The song and music video are expected to be released on all major streaming platforms for Yom HaShoah in April.

Jacob and Shrago-Spechler hope the song, and similar initiatives, will help connect students to the history of the Holocaust in a more profound way.

“After [the songwriting session], I was buzzing,” said Shrago-Spechler. “This is why I do this work — when you can see the impact it has on the kids and how they are going to talk to friends and how they stand up to hate.”

And the efforts continue. Shrago-Spechler has more programs in the works to bring Holocaust education to Broward County schools, including a May 7 event with culinary historian Michael Twitty, who wrote the book, “Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew.”

“It feels empowering to make some kind of impact in Broward County,” she said. “We can’t fight antisemitism all over the world, but if we can make a difference in our county, that’s really important.”

Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra ruled last year that Jose Mateo should not be subject to prosecution because he was acting lawfully in the belief that his use of force was necessary to end a threat caused by two robber-kidnappers who instigated the confrontation.

The kidnappers, Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Jerome Hill, died in the shootout, but so did their victim, UPS driver Frank Ordoñez, 27, and Richard Cutshaw, 70, a motorist in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Mateo and fellow Miami-Dade Police Officers Rodolfo Mirabal, Richard Santiesteban and Leslie Lee were charged with manslaughter in Ordoñez’s death. Mirabal is also charged with manslaughter in Cutshaw’s death. The officers are using the same argument as Mateo, hoping for the same result.

Over the last two weeks, Kollra has listened to testimony from numerous prosecution witnesses, including experts on the use of force. And on Wednesday he heard directly from Lee, who offered a firsthand account of the events leading up to the tragic shooting.

Lee said he opened fire to protect Ordoñez and other civilians who might be in harm’s way. Alexander and Hill kidnapped Ordoñez after robbing a Coral Gables jewelry store on Dec. 5, 2019. They led police on a chase that ended at a crowded Miramar intersection.

Prosecutor Chuck Morton argued at Mateo’s stand-your-ground hearing that the officers used a reckless and disproportionate amount of force in the confrontation, resulting in avoidable loss of life.

But Mateo’s lawyers offered a counterargument his colleagues are expected to echo in their written closing arguments: In the middle of the standoff, the officers took the action they believed to be necessary to save lives.

The case appears to be the first time the law has been invoked by a police officer to block a prosecution when the victim is not the intended target of the shooting.

The Broward State Attorney’s Office is appealing Kollra’s ruling in Mateo’s case. Kollra did not say when he would rule for the others.

The Mateo ruling was not the first time Broward broke new ground in applying the Stand Your Ground law to law enforcement officers.

A Broward Sheriff’s deputy, Peter Peraza, was the first to successfully invoke “stand your ground” to block a prosecution. Before Peraza’s 2013 manslaughter case, the law was understood to apply only to civilians invoking the right to self-defense. Peraza successfully argued that the law applied to anyone, including law enforcement officers. The Florida Supreme Court ruled in his favor in 2018.

Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457. 

But the congresswoman was in Washington casting votes on the federal budget, and it fell to her new defense attorney, William Barzee, who appeared on her behalf before U.S. Magistrate Edwin Torres to enter the plea.

Barzee, of the Miami law firm Barzee Flores, notified the court in a filing posted late Monday that the congresswoman would waive her appearance at her arraignment. In a hearing that lasted barely two minutes, Torres accepted a copy of the waiver as well as the plea.

With the plea finally entered after three delays caused by the uncertain status of the congresswoman’s legal representation, the defense and government can now move toward an April 20 trial date set by U.S. Distict Judge Darrin Gayles, who has been assigned to preside over the case.

“She’s eager to get back to work,” Barzee told reporters outside Torres’ courtroom in the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building in downtown Miami. “She’s up in Washington right now fighting for her constituents and her main focus is representing the people in her district.”

Asked if the case is a “distraction” for the congresswoman, Barzee replied, “Absolutely.”

“It’s unfortunate but it’s something that has to be dealt with and she’s hopeful it will get resolved soon,” Barzee added.

Cherfilus-McCormick, who is out on bond and who has consistently denied the charges against her, appears to have been focused over the last week on advocating for the preservation of Temporary Protection Status for some 350,000 Haitian immigrants in the United States.

On Monday, she announced she had filed several amendments to the Department of Homeland Security Fiscal Year 2026 funding bill. They are designed, she said in a statement, “at protecting vulnerable immigrant communities, preserving critical workforce capacity, and ensuring humane treatment within the immigration system.”

Last Tuesday, the congresswoman appeared with U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, a fellow Democrat, at a rally of unionized workers at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to help advocate for the preservation of protections for Haitian immigrants in South Florida and elsewhere around the nation.

Last Thursday, an investigative subcommittee of the House Ethics Committee announced it had found “substantial evidence” she had committed ethics violations and criminal misconduct, allegations she denied.

Barzee declined to comment on the committee’s report.

Appearance waiver request

“I understand that I have been charged by an indictment in this case,” the congresswoman said in her statement requesting the waiver. “My attorney has provided a copy of the indictment to me, and we reviewed the indictment together. I understand my attorney will enter a plea of not guilty as to the indictment at the arraignment.

“Having discussed the indictment with my attorney, I knowingly waive my appearance at the arraignment on the indictment. I request that the Magistrate Court accept this waiver.”

Change in attorneys

In an email, Miami criminal defense lawyer David O. Markus of Marcus / Moss acknowledged his firm had withdrawn from the case after representing the congresswoman for well over a year.

“Unfortunately my trial schedule wasn’t compatible with taking on the Congresswoman’s case,” he said. “She is in good hands with Bill Barzee and I wish them both well.”

Since the Justice Department started to investigate Cherfilus-McCormick in 2024, Markus / Moss worked on her behalf after the government filed a search warrant application in Fort Lauderdale federal court.

The firm’s lawyers also stood by the congresswoman’s side after her surrender last November and at subsequent hearings where she was scheduled to be arraigned. But those arraignments were postponed as the firm and the congresswoman sought to make arrangements for permanent legal representation in the case.

Veteran defense lawyer

Barzee is a name partner at the four-lawyer Miami firm of Barzee Flores, which specializes in criminal defense and wrongful death cases, civil litigation and seized assets, according to the firm website.

A Miami native, he holds a law degree from the University of Miami. Barzee has worked for both the State and Federal Public Defenders “handling thousands of cases and hundreds of trials,” the website says.

In private practice, the site says, “he has represented individuals accused of such crimes as defrauding the United States of millions of dollars, importing tens of thousands of kilos of cocaine into the United States and arranging for millions of dollars of arms shipments to Iran in violation of a federal arms embargo.”

Barzee is a member of The Florida Bar, the Southern District of Florida, the Middle District of Florida and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Late April trial scheduled

Barring a change of plea or a postponement of the current April 20 trial date, the congresswoman and her defense team have less than three months to prepare for trial. Judge Gayles is presiding over the case that inclues not only Cherfilus-McCormick, but three co-defendants, including her brother, Edwin.

After a federal grand jury handed up the indictment against her last Nov. 19, the congresswoman called it “unjust” and a “sham.”

She faces 15 counts that accuse her of retaining Federal Emergency Management Agency  funds overpaid to her family’s health care company, Trinity Healthcare Services, which has offices in Miramar and Delray Beach. At the time, she was serving as the company’s CEO and had not been elected to Congress.

Prosecutors claim she and Edwin Cherfilus, who is represented in the case by the federal Office of the Public Defender,  received the funds in 2021 while their company was working on a FEMA-funded staffing contract for COVID vaccinations. But the overpayment was not returned, the government alleges.

Florida’s emergency management division sued Trinity over the money in 2024, but the two sides reached a repayment agreement through mediation. The Justice Department started its own investigation in July of the same year.

Besides Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother Edwin, Nadege Leblanc, a staffer for the congresswoman, is a defendant in the case, as is David Spencer, who prepared the congresswoman’s tax return for 2021.

LeBlanc pleaded not guilty in December to charges alleging she arranged additional contributions using straw donors and sent the FEMA funds to friends and relatives. Prosecutors allege the cash was donated to the congresswoman’s campaign as if it were their own money.

Spencer is charged with conspiring to file a false federal tax return and has also entered a not guilty plea.

The New York-based Saks Global notified Florida Commerce on Jan. 23 that the center operated by Saks & Co. LLC at 2784 Executive Way will soon close, and that permanent layoffs will take place between March 27 and April 30.

“The entire facility will be closed and all employees at the facility will be separated from employment,” wrote Associate General Counsel Janet Lee in WARN Notice letters to the Florida Department of Commerce Reemployment and Emergency Assistance Coordination Team and to Miramar Mayor Wayne M. Messam. “This closure is expected to be permanent.”

In a more detailed statement, a Saks spokesperson said by email that alterations and related operations at its Southeast service center in Miramar will be shifted to stores and alternate Saks Global fulfillment centers “which are well-equipped to manage this additional work.”

“As we move forward on our transformation journey, we are continuing to identify opportunities to optimize and enhance the way we work to better serve our customers,” the spokesperson said.

Saks Global along with 112 affiliated businesses filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection more than two weeks ago in Houston.

Although the Miramar closure was announced after the Chapter 11 filing on Jan. 14, it was not clear if the decision came before or after the company went to bankruptcy court.

The Chapter 11 filing came after the debt-heavy company acquired Neiman Marcus in 2024 for $2.7 billion to form the world’s most prominent luxury retail business, which also includes Bergdorf Goodman.

The privately held company said it obtained $1.75 billion in financing to support its reorganization as it filed for Chapter 11 in the Southern District of Texas.

Stores still open

Saks Global pledged it would keep its stores open, pay vendors and employees, and honor various customer programs. At the time of the bankruptcy filing, Saks Global employed more than 16,000 people, according to reports.

A company website shows it still operates nine stores in Florida bearing the Saks brand among more than 30 Saks locations overall. An online store locator shows South Florida stores still operating in Boca Raton, Palm Beach Gardens, Bal Harbour, Dadeland and Miami’s Brickell district.

But last year, Saks closed its Worth Avenue location in Palm Beach. In 2009, Saks Fifth Avenue exited the Galleria Mall in Fort Lauderdale.

The company also operates three dozen Neiman Marcus locations, two Bergdorf Goodman stores and about 70 Saks Off 5th discount stores.

In an announcement this week, the review website gave props to:

Broward County

• Larb Thai-Isan in Fort Lauderdale, a Northeastern Thai staple (No. 42)
• Revelry in Pompano Beach, a gastropub and burlesque lounge (No. 64)
• Rosalia’s Kitchen in Miramar, a Mediterranean-Italian restaurant (No. 72)

Miami-Dade County

• COTE Miami, a Korean barbecue house (No. 20)

No Palm Beach County restaurant made the “Top 100” list.

In this edition, we’ll spare you our now-annual refrain about Yelp’s ranking system (like why a restaurant with a 4.5 rating charts higher than one with a 4.7), and stop asking why eateries that rank No. 3 in the whole country one year (as Archibalds Village Bakery in Fort Lauderdale did in 2023) magically fall off the list the next. Yelp will stay influential as long as people trust its algorithms and believe its rankings mean the same as a restaurant’s overall reputation, online and off.

So let’s move on, with one caveat: Yelp, for its part, says it ranked its 2026 list “using a number of factors, including the total volume and ratings of reviews.”

Highest on the list in Broward is Larb Thai-Isan (No. 42; 4.7 rating with 1,000 reviews). It’s a repeat Top 100er (it ranked No. 11 in 2023) and a now Michelin-recommended Northeastern Thai eatery dishing savory larb, lemongrass Tom Kha Gai soup and spicy massaman curry out of an open kitchen in a strip mall in Fort Lauderdale’s Imperial Point neighborhood.

One Yelp reviewer raved that its khao soi soup with beef and crispy duck curry was “bursting with bold and authentic flavors,” concluding that the restaurant serves “hands-down the best Thai food we’ve ever had, and we’ve had a lot of Thai food.”

At No. 64 is Revelry (4.7 rating with 225 reviews), a shamelessly nerdy lounge near Federal Highway and Atlantic Boulevard that owners Zena Tarantino and Brando Garcia have described as “inspired by your crazy aunt’s living room,” marrying eclectic mismatched furniture, 1980s movie screenings on VHS, weekend burlesque brunch and the joyful noise of local bands.

While some Yelpers dug the pub-style burgers, chicken sandwiches and smoked gouda grilled cheese, one commenter shouted out its “delicious… mahi sandwich with the Buffalo truffle cauliflower.”

And then there’s Rosalia’s Kitchen in Miramar at No. 72 (4.5 rating with 880 reviews), which arguably goes through as many costume changes in a year as Beyoncé does in one concert. Co-owner Rafael Brazon-Di Fatta brands the Mediterranean-Italian spot a “themed restaurant,” morphing into Christmas wonderlands, Halloween haunts and mermaid kingdoms every month or so.

It’s an idea that started, as some great ideas do, with an entry-level 3-D printer. Brazon-Di Fatta, whose day job is in tech, began 3-D printing whimsical drinkware and table decor in his spare time — a genie lamp with dry-ice smoke billowing out, dragon-shaped cocktail goblets, sea critters on the ceiling — to pair with seasonal drinks and Rosalia’s menu of sandwiches, salads, pastas and Roman-style pinsas.

The result is a neighborhood place that’s “friendly and welcoming,” according to one Yelper, who added that “the food was good, and we really appreciated the creativity and charm of the décor.”

“We found this happy medium between crazy-kitschy decorations while also keeping the heritage of my family’s recipes and traditional flavors,” Brazon-Di Fatta told the Sun Sentinel in November. “We renew ourselves every few months to have fun and to stay competitive in this crazy restaurant market in South Florida.”

In Miami-Dade, meanwhile, Korean barbecue spot COTE Miami ranked highest on the list at No. 20.

For the full “Top 100 Places to Eat” in the U.S. 2026 restaurant rankings, go to Yelp.com/article.

Staff writer Phillip Valys can be reached at pvalys@sunsentinel.com or Twitter/X @philvalys.

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles of Miami canceled a scheduling conference set for Wednesday after reviewing a motion filed by the congresswoman’s brother, Edwin Cherfilus, and joined by two other co-defendants. The judge had originally set a trial date for the two-week period starting on Monday. The start date is now April 20.

“The interests of justice served by a continuance outweigh the interests of the public and the Defendant to a speedy trial,” the judge wrote in his order.

The congresswoman is accused of stealing a government overpayment of $5 million to Trinity Health Care Services, a family-operated home health care firm. She has publicly denied the charges. But she has not entered a plea in court because she has yet to formally retain a permanent legal team.

Cherfilus-McCormick has been working to secure the prominent Miami law firm of Markus / Moss PLLC to represent her at trial, a process so protracted that it has delayed her arraignment since November.

That issue, along with a heavy volume of discovery being produced by the government, led to the request for a trial delay from the Federal Public Defender’s office, which represents her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, co-defendant in the case.

“The discovery that has been produced so far in this matter consists of 1,203,477 records, which undersigned understands to include written records as well as recordings,” Srilekha Jayanthi, the assistant federal public defender assigned to represent Cherfilus, wrote in her motion for a 90-day delay.

“Due to the volume of this discovery, undersigned has had to set up special software in order to facilitate the storage and review of this material at her offices,” Jayanthi wrote. “Due to absences over the holidays and delays relating to this set-up, undersigned has not yet had a meaningful opportunity to review the discovery material, or to begin her independent investigation of the facts and evaluate possible motions and defenses.”

She said defense attorneys Marcus Beaton and Manuel Casabielle, who represent co-defendants Nadege LeBlanc and David Spencer respectively, agreed to join the motion.

She added that Assistant U.S. Attorney Alejandra Lopez, the lead prosecutor, “has advised that the Government does not oppose”  the requested trial delay.

Cherfilus-McCormick, a 46-year-old Democrat who represents Florida District 20, was indicted on multiple counts of alleged theft, money laundering and tax offenses last November.

On Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Enjolique Lett granted a third extension of time, until Feb. 3, so the congresswoman will have more time to work out arrangements with the Markus / Moss firm.

During a brief hearing at the C. Clyde Atkins U.S. Courthouse, attorney David O. Markus, citing financial and other complications as reasons for the delay, sought to assure the judge that “something can be worked out.”

Asked via email Wednesday as to whether any progress had been made, he replied: “We are trying to work it out.”

Markus and law firm partner Anita Margot Moss first represented Cherfilus-McCormick in the early investigative stages of the government’s case in late July 2024, when prosecutors filed an application for a search warrant, according to court files.

The records show a progression of sealed filings and closed hearings before judges in Fort Lauderdale.

The indictment against the congresswoman was ultimately handed up in November 2025, and court records show that temporarily the congresswoman has had the services of four lawyers from the firm: Markus, Moss, Lauren Krasnoff and Melissa Madrigal.

This article was updated after publication to remove references to an unrelated case.

But the law firm that has been temporarily representing the congresswoman requested and was granted another postponement after Miami attorney David Markus of Markus Moss PLLC advised a federal magistrate that there are still financial and “other complications” that need to be resolved before the firm can be permanently retained.

U.S. Magistrate Enjolique Lett noted that the representation issue has been pending since Thanksgiving, about the time Cherfilus-McCormick made her first appearance.

“At some point we’re going to have to decide what’s going on,” the judge said during a hearing that lasted just four minutes.

“You’re absolutely right, your honor,” Markus replied.

“I think we can work this out,” he added.

Lett agreed to again defer the arraignment until Feb. 3 after Markus pledged to have the retention issue resolved by then — either with the hiring of his own firm or that of another attorney.

The decision essentially guarantees the delay of a Jan. 26 trial date set by U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles, who has been assigned the case.

The congresswoman is set to appear Wednesday morning before Gayles for a scheduling conference the judge had set along with the trial date.

On Tuesday, Markus told Judge Lett that he would explain the situation to Gayles when he appears with the congresswoman in court.

After the hearing, both Markus and the congresswoman exited the C. Clyde Atkins U.S. Courthouse in downtown Miami with the lawyer telling reporters neither he nor his client had anything to say.

Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, a Democrat, was indicted in late November on multiple counts including the theft of $5 million from the Federal Emergency Management Administration, conspiracy to commit theft,  money laundering, conspiracy to make and receive straw donor contributions, and conspiracy to make a false and fraudulent statement on a tax return.

On Dec. 29, Cherfilus-McCormick appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette Reid for her arraignment, but Reid, too, was informed arrangements had not been finalized for the congresswoman’s permanent legal representation.

Reid had postponed the arraignment until Tuesday.

As no arraignment has been conducted thus far, the congresswoman has not entered a plea, although she declared her innocence outside the court in December and in November after the indictment was returned against her.

In an unexpected post-hearing statement in December, Markus alleged on the courthouse steps that certain individuals in the Florida Democratic Party had “targeted” the congresswoman.

“This case involves mistakes that typically aren’t even misdemeanors, forget about federal felonies,” Markus told reporters with the congresswoman at his side. “And we’re starting to uncover evidence that folks within the Florida Democratic Party are the ones targeting the congresswoman, and that’s very troubling to us, and we’ll be looking into that more and more as the case goes forward, and exposing those folks who are targeting the good congresswoman.”

Markus did not elaborate. He did not identify any of the individuals. Since then, there have been no further public announcements about the issue.

Cherfilus-McCormick has represented Florida’s 20th congressional district, a seat formerly held by the late Rep. Alcee Hastings, since 2022. The district covers most Black-majority areas around Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

The congresswoman, whose birthday is Sunday, continues to remain in office while the case plays out and has vowed to continue representing her constituents.

Cherfilus-McCormick has been free on bond after her initial court appearance on Nov. 25. But the court limited her travels to the Southern District of Florida, Washington, D.C., the Eastern District of Virginia and District of Maryland. Later, she was granted permission to visit her mother-in-law, who had undergone back surgery, in Brevard County.

Her co-defendants in the case are: Nadege Leblanc, the congresswoman’s chief of staff; tax preparer David Spencer; and Edwin Cherfilus, the lawmaker’s brother, who is being represented by the Office of the Federal Public Defender. The two others are being represented by private lawyers who are being paid with public funds under the 1964 federal Criminal Justice Act, according to court files.

The crimes alleged by the government occurred before Cherfilus-McCormick was elected.

She had been CEO of Trinity Health Care Services, a family-run company that provides in-home care services in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.  Founded in 1994 and licensed by the state Agency for Health Care Administration, the firm maintains offices in Miramar and West Palm Beach.

According to the indictment, Trinity delivered $50,578.50 in services during the COVID-19 pandemic, including vaccination outreach. But after Trinity sought reimbursement from the Florida Division of Emergency Management — the agency distributing the FEMA funds — the company received more than $5 million because of a clerical error.

Under federal law, the company was obliged to report the error and return the money. And after the mistake was made known, Trinity entered into a settlement with the state to return the excess payment over time.

But the federal government alleges the congresswoman and her brother conspired to steal the money, launder it and persuade friends and family members to donate money to her congressional campaign. Allegedly, the donors were reimbursed.

The government also included tax fraud charges against the congresswoman and her tax preparer.

Assistant State Attorney Alixandra Buckelew made the surprise announcement in court Tuesday morning during a status conference. Jury selection in the case was scheduled to begin Wednesday.

In a memorandum released Tuesday. Buckelew said the state was left with little choice because Broward Circuit Judge Martin Fein has yet to rule on the admissibility of crucial evidence at the heart of their case. Melly is accused of using jailhouse go-betweens to pressure his ex-girlfriend against cooperating with detectives and investigators in the lead-up to his first murder trial in 2023, which ended in a hung jury. The ex-girlfriend never sat for a deposition and never testified.

Most of the tampering evidence came from recorded jail conversations involving a cellmate and Cortlen Henry, Melly’s former co-defendant in the murder case.

“Not having a ruling puts this critical evidence at risk,” Buckelew wrote. If Fein were to seat a jury and later rule against admitting the evidence, Buckelew wrote, the tampering allegations could not be brought up at the murder trial. The ex-girlfriend has also indicated she would be a hostile witness if they try to force her to testify in the tampering case.

“The evidence in this case is significant consciousness of guilt evidence (and) will be utilized against the defendant in the homicide trial,” Buckelew wrote.

Defense lawyer Carey Haughwout scoffed at that explanation, saying prosecutors never had enough evidence to convict — with or without the recordings.

Demons, 26, still faces the possibility of a death sentence if he is convicted on the murder charges. That trial is scheduled to begin next year.

Demons, a rising star in the rap world at the time, is accused of suddenly shooting his friends, Christopher “Juvy” Thomas Jr. and Anthony “Sakchaser” Williams, inside a Jeep after an overnight recording session in Fort Lauderdale on Oct. 26, 2018.

According to prosecutors and investigators, Demons was seated behind Henry, the driver, while Thomas and Williams sat on the passenger side. They were in Miramar when, without warning, Melly shot and killed the passengers, according to trial testimony. Then he worked with Henry to stage the scene to make it look like Thomas and Williams had been the victims of a drive-by, investigators said.

Medical experts testified that the shots that killed Thomas and Williams came from inside the car, from whoever was seated behind the driver. Surveillance video from outside the Fort Lauderdale recording studio showed Melly getting into that seat.

Defense lawyers argued there was no evidence Melly was still in the car when the shooting happened.

Last year Henry pleaded no contest to two counts of accessory to murder after the fact, never promising to testify against Melly. That plea freed the state to focus on Melly as the person they believe is responsible for committing the murders.

A federal grand jury in Miami returned indictments on Wednesday against Stevenson Charles, 24, Yusuf Minor, 31, and Naod Yohannes, 25, in connection with the Dec. 22 kidnapping that began near Atlanta. They are charged with conspiracy to kidnap, kidnapping, Hobbs Act robbery, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Charles is also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

On the morning of Dec. 22, corrections officers at the DeKalb County Jail, located 15 miles outside of Atlanta, found that Charles, Minor and Yohannes had escaped some time between the evening before and early that morning, according to a criminal complaint.

The Lyft driver accepted a request for a ride that came from a woman’s account early that morning, and she met the three men instead when she arrived for pickup, according to the complaint. She “recalled feeling uneasy” but drove them to their scheduled destination.

Once the woman unlocked her car doors to let the men out, one of them wrapped a rope around her neck, and she was dragged into the backseat of the car and her hands tied together, the complaint said. The men told her to look down and keep her eyes closed, the Lyft driver told authorities once she had been recovered from the kidnapping.

The woman was repeatedly told she would be killed if she did not follow their commands or if she struggled. For as long as 10 hours, the woman was held inside the car with the escaped inmates. Based on their conversations, she surmised they were inmates who had escaped, the complaint said.

The U.S. Marshals Service contacted FBI Miami’s Violent Crime and Fugitive Task Force after the inmates escaped and shared the details of the Lyft driver’s car. The car passed through license plate readers in Broward and Miami-Dade County, and law enforcement began surveilling them, according to the complaint. Investigators also learned as they surveilled the car that the victim’s credit card had been used to rent an Airbnb in Miramar.

Charles was driving the car and Yohannes was his passenger when authorities pulled them over, the complaint said. Charles tried to run away after the traffic stop and tossed a loaded 9mm handgun away as he ran, but he was arrested. Yohannes was arrested near the car. Both men had the Lyft driver’s bank cards on them when they were arrested.

Minor was found at the rental home in Miramar with the victim, where he surrendered to law enforcement, the complaint said.

The Lyft driver told authorities that the men used her bank cards at multiple locations and that she had tried to escape at one point after they crossed into Florida, according to the complaint. One of the men assaulted her for trying to escape, and she was increasingly threatened to be killed or assaulted after, she told authorities.

All three are held in the Broward Main Jail.

It played out precisely according to script last weekend as word spread of the military incursion in which the U.S. captured and removed Venezuela’s dictatorial president, Nicolás Maduro.

A half hour north of Doral, in parts of Broward County — where Weston has one of the largest concentrations of Venezuelans in the United States — Maduro’s ouster produced just as much joy, and in the days after just as much concern, even though it didn’t attract the same volume of news cameras.

“The whole community, the whole Venezuelan community I would say is happy. The people are just happy,” said Alexander Rueda, a native of Venezuela who is now a U.S. citizen and Weston resident. I don’t know even one person who is not against Maduro.”

Rueda, 55, and his family are among the immigrants from Venezuela who have transformed the economy, culture and politics of Weston — and, more recently, pockets of other nearby communities in Southwest Broward.

Weston is home to so many Venezuelans who are now U.S. citizens, people who have been legally allowed to live and work in the country, and their American-born citizen children that the city is often called Westonzuela.

Rueda estimated that two of every three people in his neighborhood are from Venezuela. His two youngest children attend Cypress Bay High School, where an estimated 65% of the students are Hispanic. (School district data doesn’t break down background by nationality.) Rueda’s two older children are graduates of Florida International University.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who has lived in Weston for 28 years, said in an interview most of the neighbors on her block are Venezuelan, and many of her now-adult children’s friends when they were in school there were Venezuelan.

And, she said, Venezuelans and non-Venezuelans aren’t isolated in separate enclaves the way different ethnic groups are in some places.

The numbers

A Neilsberg Research analysis in October of the Census Bureau’s most recent American Community Survey data found Broward has 58,811 Venezuelan residents.

Previous research estimated the county’s Venezuelan population was 25,073 in 2012, up significantly from 8,807 in 2000.

And the biggest concentration is in Weston, where the estimated 10,215 Venezuelans make up 15% of the city’s population. Venezuelans are 3% of the countywide population.

Pembroke Pines, Sunrise, Miramar, Hollywood, Coral Springs and Davie also have sizable, though smaller Venezuelan populations. Pembroke Pines has the largest number outside Weston, at 8,391, an estimated 5% of the city’s population. In Sunrise the estimated 5,734 are 6% of the city’s population.

Palm Beach County, by contrast, has an estimated countywide Venezuelan population of 14,385 — less than 1% of the county’s residents. Orange County’s 40,906 residents are 2.8% of the county’s total population.

Miami-Dade County’s 124,087 Venezuelans are 4.6% of its residents. Doral, home to an estimated 31,361 Venezuelans, or 41%, has the largest Venezuelan population in the country.

Impact

Food is a visible way the Venezuelan diaspora has had an impact, said Eduardo Gamarra, a political science professor at Florida International University, and founder of the Latino Public Opinion Forum at FIU’s School of International and Public Affairs.

“I see the influence in the restaurants that have opened up there, especially in the Weston area and in parts of western Broward,” he said. “More than anything else they have improved our culinary experience.”

Thriving businesses are a result, Gamarra said.

Adelys Ferro, a Weston resident and executive director of the political advocacy organization Venezuelan American Caucus, said there are food truck owners, entrepreneurs, nurses, restaurateurs, teachers and delivery people, along with many other business and professional people.

“We have become a very important asset of Weston and of Broward,” Ferro said. “I think it’s a critical community, a really very important community. We are part of not only the cultural fabric of the community, but also the economic fabric of the community.”

And there are large businesses that started small in Weston. Rueda is CEO of Panna Group, a food company which in many ways illustrates the growth and economic importance of the Venezuelan community in Weston.

Panna started selling Venezuelan food — tequeños (fried dough-wrapped cheese sticks), empanadas (dough with a filling), and cachitos (ham-filled rolls) — at a gas station in Weston in 2000. It still does.

The company, which Rueda joined in 2014, now has five restaurants and coffee shops in Weston, Doral and Orlando.

Panna today has more than 200 employees, and the company produces and distributes its products to retailers, including Walmart, in 40 states. It had $45 million in revenue in its most recent year of business, Rueda said.

The now larger company’s products serve a wider range of tastes, including Argentinian empanadas, which use wheat as the main ingredient and are baked; Colombian empanadas, which have a yellow-corn base and are fried; and Venezuelan empanadas, which have a white corn base and also are fried, he said.

Why Weston

There are varied, complex and often interrelated reasons why so many Venezuelans have made Westonzuela their home.

Venezuelans have been coming to the U.S. for decades in waves, sometimes motivated more by economics, sometimes motivated by political turmoil and repression.

Weston has long been a prime destination. Wasserman Schultz said it is home to people who have lived in the community for decades along with newer arrivals.

Decades ago, some wealthier Venezuelans began splitting their time between South Florida and their home country, gradually spending more and more time. Some people with the financial ability moved their families to the area and, for a time, returned to Venezuela to conduct business.

Later, Venezuelans fled economic chaos and lawlessness under the repressive regimes of Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez. Upheavals, repression and economic turmoil under those leaders sometimes produced large influxes of new arrivals.

(President Donald Trump has repeatedly asserted, without offering evidence, that Maduro emptied prisons and mental institutions and sent millions of violent criminals to the United States.)

Attracted by the city’s reputation for having stellar schools and one of the lowest crime rates in Florida, many immigrants from Venezuela settled in Weston. Crime statistics show the city continues to have one of the lowest crime rates in the state and nation.

Rueda, who moved to the U.S. in 2006 as his career advanced with a Fortune 500 company, recalls that real estate companies had sales offices in Venezuela.

Fabio Andrade, who is Colombian, said that years ago developers building in the planned city of Weston advertised to potential buyers in Venezuela and Colombia. Old news coverage about Arvida, the company that planned and developed Weston, reported that developers advertised in those countries in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“That is how both the Colombian and the Venezuelan communities started coming to Broward,” Andrade said.

Elected to the Weston City Commission in 2024, Andrade founded the Americas Community Center decades ago, and the organization still runs programs helping Hispanic immigrants with assistance in jobs and networking in Broward County.

Given his corporate career that brought him to the U.S., Rueda said he’s different from many Venezuelan immigrants. He’s similar, though, in that schools attracted him to Weston, in 2016. “Weston became a very attractive place because of the education,” he said. “The Venezuelan people value education.”

Ramón Peraza, 70, said he arrived in Weston 22 years ago with his wife and four children, then between 9 and 18 years old. The family has grown; he now has four grandchildren.

A few years after arriving, they bought Café Canela on the Weston-Sunrise border, where he said most of his customers were, and remain, Venezuelan.

He was an electrical engineer, who came to the U.S. for better opportunities, having previously vacationed here. Peraza said he left Venezuela, because it was impossible to work there. And he’s now a citizen of the U.S., which he called “a great nation, the best nation in the world.”

Gamarra said earlier phases of Venezuelan migration featured people with more money and more education, who were better able to afford to buy in Weston. Many of the more recent arrivals didn’t have financial resources to buy homes in an upscale community and are more dispersed.

U.S. politics

There aren’t any Venezuelan Americans in elected office in Broward, Ferro said. But the community enjoys some political clout even though it is not a large voting block.

Amassing influence and getting people elected takes time. Some immigrants were concentrating on making a living. It also takes time to gain citizenship, which allows people to vote.

And some immigrants had a bad feeling about politics in general, after fleeing a country where disagreeing with the regime could lead to harsh treatment. “Many of the people fled from Venezuela because they don’t want to continue living a life where politics has to be the main thing in your life,” Rueda said.

Still, political leaders in both parties are responsive to the Venezuelan community.

Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat, has long been an outspoken critic of the Chavez and Maduro governments — and has often advocated more hawkish U.S. policy toward the country’s dictatorial leaders than other Democrats. In 2019, she visited the Colombian-Venezuelan border and met with refugees.

Gamarra said the congresswoman is reflecting her constituency “probably better than any other Democrat that I know of. … She certainly wasn’t doing the progressive agenda with them. The rest of the Democratic candidates were never able to do what she did.”

Andrade, who was the founding president of Republican Amigos, a Broward political club, also said the Democratic congresswoman has been responsive to the Venezuelan and Colombian communities.

For many years, Gamarra said, Venezuelans who had become citizens tended to lean Democratic, something he said changed with the rise of Trump in 2016.

As to how Venezuelan Americans vote in 2026 and beyond, that’s unclear. “How the Venezuelan vote plays out is going to greatly depend on how the next few months goes,” Wasserman Schultz said.

Anxious, optimistic

Many in the Venezuelan community praised Trump’s actions that removed Maduro. “We are very, very happy what the United States is doing about liberty for Venezuela,” Peraza said.

Others are concerned about what comes next in the country and whether the administration’s efforts to end temporary protected status, known as TPS, will result in mass deportations of Venezuelans.

The Trump administration is terminating TPS, a humanitarian program, which allows people who’ve fled turmoil in their home countries and can’t return home to legally live and work in the U.S. The administration is working to end TPS for people from multiple troubled countries.

If large numbers of Venezuelans are forced to leave, Gamarra said the effects would be significant. “It’ll be big. I don’t think we fully understand that yet.”

Republican Andrade and Democrat Ferro said the end of TPS is a major concern.

On Friday, Wasserman Schultz and U.S. Rep. Darren Soto of Orlando, led 70 Democrats in writing to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanding they immediately restore TPS for Venezuelans.

Questions remain about the nature of the government the Trump administration is allowing to run the country, with many Maduro allies in positions of power, including his vice president. And people in the country may be unable to obtain basic goods and services, something that was already difficult under the crumbling Maduro-led economy.

Wasserman Schultz called the capture and removal of Maduro “welcome news.”

“The real concern that exists right now among Venezuelans in our community in Broward is that they’ve cut off the head of a snake and swapped it for another head on top of the same snake’s body,” Wasserman Schultz said. “So while there’s excitement and hope, probably still cautious optimism, there’s real concern.”

Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.