Notorious Broward triple murder was drug hit ordered by traffickers, new witness says
Attorneys for Pablo Ibar, a man convicted in a notorious 1994 triple murder case that has lingered in South Florida courts for decades and garnered international attention, say they have a new witness who claims that two other men — not Ibar — committed the killings as a drug-related hit.
Ibar, 53, was convicted in 2019 of gunning down three people in a Miramar home invasion known by many as the Casey’s Nickelodeon murders, named after the bar owned by one of the victims, 48-year-old Casimir ‘Butch Casey’ Sucharski. Also killed in the June 26, 1994 slayings: Sharon Anderson and Marie Rogers, both 25-year-old women who were guests in Sucharski’s home.
The witness, whose name was redacted in a 38-page court document filed Sunday, says a person identified as “A.N. aka El Loco” confessed to him that he and another man, dubbed “F.B. aka Loeva,” committed the murders of which Ibar was convicted.
Ibar has maintained his innocence since his arrest in the ‘90s.
According to the unnamed witness, he met El Loco when they worked for a Colombian drug trafficking organization in South Florida, said attorney Daniel Tibbitt, who penned the court filing. The witness said a person identified as “C.P. aka El Gordo” ordered a hit for Sucharski “due to [him] stealing narcotics.”
Ibar doesn’t know the witness, El Loco, Loeva or El Gordo, the filing says.
El Loco, the witness said, bragged about the murders and told him that he and Loeva were ordered to gather the drugs and money inside the home, according to the document. The witness said he was asked to participate in the hit but didn’t because he was out of town at the time.
The witness also told Ibar’s defense attorneys that he divulged the information to federal and Miami-Dade law enforcement when he was arrested on federal drug trafficking charges in 1996, the document states. Those charges were reduced due to his cooperation.
“There is no evidence this exculpatory information was turned over to Ibar at any time, and he alleges uncontradicted it was not,” the filing says. “...If he had known about it, he would have ensured that his lawyers investigated this new lead about the actual perpetrators and introduced the [witness’s] testimony at trial.”
The witness came forward to a group of Ibar’s supporters after his appeal was denied in 2023, the document reveals. He signed a sworn statement after one of Ibar’s attorneys traveled to the country where he now lives, Tibbitt told the Herald on Wednesday morning.
The Herald hasn’t been able to obtain a copy of the sworn statement as it was filed under seal to protect the identity of the witness, who Tibbitt noted fears for his safety.
For Tibbitt, the witness’ account of the murders being a drug-related hit “makes a lot more sense” than prosecutors’ theory that Ibar robbed the home.
The three victims were shot dead execution-style, although investigators believe Sucharski was the intended target. Sucharski was known to dabble in drugs and keep large sums of cash inside the home, according to the Herald’s archives.
However, valuable items were left inside the house after the slayings, including a Cartier watch, per court documents. Wadded duct tape indicative of wrapping kilos of cocaine were also spotted at the scene.
“The reality is that if the jury had heard about this… it would’ve created reasonable doubt,” Tibbitt asserted to the Herald.
Tibbitt added he hopes that the judge assigned to the case will set a hearing where Ibar’s attorneys can present the new evidence.
“He hasn’t given up,” Tibbitt said. “He’s hopeful, and he believes that ultimately the truth will come out...”
When reached for comment Wednesday morning, the Broward State Attorney’s Office said, “Our appellate attorneys will file a response in court.”
Decades of twists and turns
This week’s filing is just the latest curveball thrown in a complex case that has made its way through Florida’s courts over half a dozen times in the last three decades.
Grainy surveillance footage from inside the home — key evidence in the case — captured two armed invaders bursting into the home as Sucharski and the two women spoke around a breakfast table, according to the Herald’s archives. The assailants beat Sucharski, bound the women, and ultimately shot them in the back of the head while they lied face-down on the floor.
The killer was seen on the footage wiping his face with a T-shirt that became a point of contention during Ibar’s trial.
DNA found on the shirt links back to two sources: partially to Ibar but mainly to an unidentified man, records show. Defense attorneys argue that Ibar’s DNA was transferred onto the shirt due to mishandling of evidence because “a latex glove nobody could explain” was found inside the evidence bag.
Testing also identified saliva on the shirt, although Ibar was excluded as being the contributor — which the defense alleges would be impossible because the assailant wiped his face with the shirt on the video.
Ibar was first tried in 1998, along with his co-defendant Seth Penalver. That trial resulted in a hung jury. Years later, both men were tried separately — resulting in a conviction and death sentence.
The Florida Supreme Court, however, vacated both men’s convictions and granted them retrials. In 2012, a jury found Penalver not guilty.
Ibar was ultimately convicted by a Broward jury after a three month trial in 2019. That same jury recommended Ibar be sentenced to life in prison instead of being sent back to Death Row.
Ibar’s case amassed significant attention in Spain, with government officials even applying diplomatic pressure to get Ibar off Death Row. Ibar’s father, a well-known jai-alai player from Spain, moved to South Florida in the 1960s. Ibar became a Spanish citizen during his highly publicized trials.
The case was the focus of “The Miramar Murders,” a six-part documentary produced in Spain and released in 2020.
This story was originally published June 25, 2025 at 4:57 PM.
