The manslaughter trial of the man who led the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills when residents died in the wake of Hurricane Irma in 2017 entered its second week Monday.
And once again the defense is using state witnesses to bring out evidence they think will show their client is not guilty.
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WATCH HERETo prove Jorge Carballo guilty of aggravated manslaughter, the state needs to show he acted with gross negligence, with utter disregard for the safety of his residents, according to Florida jury instructions.
Instead, the defense got a computer forensic investigator called by prosecutors to read a timeline prepared on Carballo's computer of all the things he claimed he did to protect those lives.
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The timeline spanned Sept. 7, 2017, the Thursday before the storm hit, through Wednesday, Sept. 13, and was created on Sept. 15.
Irma knocked out power to the center’s air conditioning, but not the rest of the building, around 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 10.
Among those actions described in the document entered into evidence by the state:
- repeatedly contacting the governor, Florida Power & Light and state health care officials about the air conditioning being knocked out and pleading for help
- ordering staff to freeze water overnight so residents oculd have cold water the next day
- preparing before the storm an area for staff to sleep in once the storm hit
- making sure there was enough food, water and fuel for a generator to last three days or more
- ordering staff to buy as many fans as they could, eventually spending $900 on them
In an email sent from a remote computer or phone at 2:22 a.m. on Sept. 13, Carballo informed corporate leaders the problem was a broken circuit at the top of an FPL pole, and not in the building itself.
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He described how many portable air conditioners had been obtained and used and "thank(s) God" some were provided by Memorial Healthcare System.
The state says heat built up in the building because those air conditioners were improperly installed by the center's employee, but they did not charge those employees with causing the nine deaths.
And there's been no evidence presented showing Carballo knew they were improperly installed.
The defense has tried repeatedly over the years to get the charges thrown out by a judge, who has denied those motions.
They will get another chance later this week after the state rests and the defense seeks a judgment of acquittal, essentially saying it would be a miscarriage of justice for a case this weak to even go to the jury based on what the state has presented so far.
