Belmont Vision - Sports - Softball out of cellar

Web sites show the efforts of those who believe in the innocence of Eric Volz. The Nashville native was convicted of murder in Nicaragua, despite evidence many say proves he could not have committed the crime. Before he began serving a 30-year sentence, he was publisher of an environmental magazine.

In the heart of a Nicaraguan prison, one American sits, convicted to 30 years for a crime thousands say he did not commit.

Twenty-seven-year-old Eric Volz, stepson of former Belmont associate dean of students Dane Anthony, had lived in Nicaragua for about two years before his arrest. He had supported himself selling real estate and then set up a bilingual environmental magazine called El Puente Magazine, or EP Magazine.

On Nov. 21 between 11:45 p.m. and 1 p.m., Volz’s ex-girlfriend, Doris Jimenez, was found murdered in a clothing store she owned in San Juan del Sur. At 2:43 p.m., Volz, then living in Managua, a city approximately two hours away from San Juan del Sur, received a phone call from one of Jimenez’s friends, telling him that the latter was dead. At 3 p.m., Volz rented a car and headed towards San Jan del Sur to be with Jimenez’s family.

The evidence that potentially could exonerate Volz, the only non-Nicaraguan among four people initially accused of the crime, has been in numerous media reports in the United States, most recently April 22 when Dateline NBC devoted an entire hour to the case. In every report, it is repeated that at least 10 witnesses who testified on the day of the trial swore that Volz was not in San Juan del Sur at the time of the murder; all the physical evidence (hair, saliva, fluids and blood samples) from the scene of the murder examined by Nicaraguan medical examiners proved that Volz was not in the area at the time of the murder.

Yet Volz, a graduate of Nashville’s Hillwood High School who studied Latin culture at the University of California-San Diego, was accused of committing the murder. And Volz, who had no criminal record and whose presence in Managua when the crime occurred was confirmed by records, witness testimonies, lack of physical evidence and an “iron-clad alibi,” was convicted of murder. He was sentenced to prison for 30 years – the maximum term allowed under Nicaraguan law.

And since the judicial system seemed to overlook all the proof of Volz’s innocence, families, friends and strangers in the United States have joined together to push for an appeal of the conviction.

One way a lot of the responders communicate and are brought together is through the “Free Eric Volz” Myspace page set up by a friend of the family, Nicole McKinney. The McKinneys have known Volz since he was younger and used to come home with Nicole’s brother after school. They are “best family friends.”

McKinney works in advertising and interactive media with AT&T. Anthony contacted McKinney, telling her that there was a film explaining Volz’s situation that he wanted to make No. 1 on YouTube. After thinking about how to accomplish that, McKinney created a Myspace profile page for Volz where she posted the video.

“It allowed people to [be Myspace friends with] Eric and pass the video on to their friends,” McKinney said. “When you friend Eric… you become part of a team.”

In two weeks, Volz gained about 1000 friends through Myspace.

The video was produced by two girls, Rena and Nadine Mundo, who met Volz at San Diego City College. The Mundo girls, as they have come to be known, were born on the Farm, a hippie community founded by Stephen Gaskin in 1971 in Summertown, Tenn., 70 miles south of Nashville.

“[The film] is so compelling because the lack of justice affects people,” McKinney said.

Another friend of Volz’s from school that McKinney had not met before helped her lay down the HTML coding for the film onto the Myspace page. Now they e-mail back and forth exchanging ideas on how to push their cause to the next level. The Internet, especially through Myspace, created something McKinney was not expecting.

“It became a community,” she said. “It connected people on an emotional level and it connected people who have the tools to help. It allowed the people he touched to touch [other] people.”

Anthony has also experienced people reaching out to him. A lady and her daughter in Ohio read about Volz on the Internet and decided to have a bake sale and carwash to raise money for the appellate hearing.

“I am confident that I will never meet her,” Anthony said.

Another student from San Diego City College held a benefit concert on the campus on Friday, April 27 where $10 donations were collected and forwarded to the funds for the appellate hearing. Anthony has not and may well never meet this student.

People have also come to the home of Anthony and his wife, Maggie, Volz’s mother. They come up to the house, pray with them, stay a few minutes and then leave.

They have been doing this from day one, Anthony said.

“They must have assumed that Eric stood alone…and he had no one supporting him,” McKinney’s mother, Marna, said of those who accuse Volz. “They were not prepared for the kind of support he has.”

They provide something for Anthony that he needs in this situation.

Marna McKinney testified to the Anthonys’ faith.

“Dane and Maggie have always been an inspiration to me in their… profound faith in higher power,” Marna McKinney said.

It’s the only way Anthony would know how to survive the ordeal.

“I can’t imagine going through this without a strong faith or without a strong community,” Anthony said.

And perhaps it is this that helps him stay grounded in the midst of all of this.

“We’ve never asked, ‘Why us?’ God has proven to be in the midst of all of this [and]… has gone before us. Something is at play here that we can’t see,” Anthony said.

“We [also] sense that we are not doing this by ourselves.”

Anthony, who said he gets 40-60 e-mails a day, recently got e-mails from a person in South Africa and another in Mexico, both offering their support.

“Like Eric said, these e-mails are nutrients for us,” Anthony said.

In all of this, those fighting for Volz try to keep their focus on freeing him and doing it the way he would want. Volz had an affinity for Nicaragua and its people.

“We’re continuing to build the bridge Eric started,” McKinney said. “If we made the situation the United States versus Nicaragua, that would cause a great plight.”

Volz is granted access to a phone once a week. When he does call, though, not only does he inquire about progress on the appeal, but he also asks for people to pray for the other inmates. There are political prisoners who do not have the support that he has.

“The story is deeper. It’s about justice and injustice,” McKinney said. “It’s about us saying, ‘No. We want justice.’”

And people have offered help toward this goal in whatever way they know how, whether it is through organizing a benefit concert or having a bake sale.

“It doesn’t matter if you have two seconds, 20 minutes, or an hour,” McKinney said. “If you have two seconds, do something as simple as saying a small prayer; if you have 20 minutes, write a letter to someone in power about Eric; if you have an hour, read about [Volz] and write a blog.”

They also need people to donate money to Volz’s legal cost.

Volz’s freedom is something that has become such a large part of his family’s lives that Anthony had to resign from Belmont after 18 years of service.

“This is so demanding and so big that I couldn’t do my job and take care of this at the same time,” Anthony said. “[I appreciate] all the prayers, support and time I’ve received [from Belmont]. I’ve given a lot of myself to Belmont, but Belmont has given a lot back.”

For McKinney, sometimes the struggle wears on her, but she pulls herself back up again.

“Sometimes I stop and I’m so exhausted, but then I stop myself and think, ‘It’s nothing compared to what his parents are going through,’” McKinney said. “This isn’t one-tenth of what Eric is feeling.”

And for Anthony, this fight has consumed his and his wife’s lives.

“It’s all we know… [and] it’s all we do,” Anthony said. “We’re doing whatever we have to.”

The battle continues as there has been a movement toward an appeal. The Nicaraguan court is expected to gather in about two weeks to hear the appeal. In the meantime all the people fighting for Volz’s freedom continue to raise awareness and funds to aid the appeal in whatever way possible. They continue to struggle even when they are exhausted.

“This is what it takes to save a life,” McKinney said.

May 1 , 2007