For 62 nights they were held in captivity, hidden in an unknown location at the eastern edge of Haiti’s capital. At almost every turn, they were guarded, held at gunpoint and kept in such deplorable conditions that one of them developed countless sores, another could not walk and a third had serious health conditions that went untreated.

In a rare unguarded and desperate moment, they managed to get outside. While some waved in the scorching Haitian sun, others held up “SOS” and “Help Us” signs, hoping to get the attention from passing airplanes.

In the end, the majority of the 16 U.S. missionaries and one Canadian national who were kidnapped in October 2021 and held for ransom for two months by Haiti’s notorious 400 Mawozo gang were freed only after a $350,000 ransom was paid. The gang itself was such a well-oiled criminal machine that there were designated personnel to handle logistics like soap, toothbrushes and medicines for hostages, and gang members worked in shifts to guard them.

On Thursday, prosecutors with the U.S. Justice Department argued that the entire ordeal and brazen for-ransom-kidnapping scheme, which thrust 400 Mawozo and Haiti’s kidnapping epidemic onto the global stage, was all set up for one man: Germine “Yonyon” Joly, now on trial in a federal court in Washington, D.C.

Joly, who was in a Haitian prison at the time of the kidnappings, “intentionally, voluntarily joined this crime with the intent to achieve it,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Seifert told a 12-member federal jury after the government rested its case.

Prosecutors had called two FBI agents onto the stand to rebut Joly’s claims the day before that he was not a member of 400 Mawozo and that he had not identified other gang members to the FBI while onboard a flight as he was being extradited from Haiti to the U.S.

Questioning the agents, the defense stressed how the FBI had not “further explained” to Joly how his words could be used against him beyond just reading him his Miranda rights during the flight. FBI agents answered that Joly was read his rights in Haitian Creole and was told that he could stop the interview at any time but he chose not to.

Already facing 35 years in prison after pleading guilty last year to a 48-count gunrunning conspiracy involving 400 Mawozo, Joly is accused of 16 counts of kidnappings involving the 16 U.S. citizens with Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, which is affiliated with the Mennonite community.

After a week of triial, which included testimony from several of the missionaries, some of the FBI agents who searched for them and evidence of Joly’s own purported text messages showing his role, the gang leader’s fate now rests in the hands of a jury that will begin deliberating on Friday.

During her closing arguments in U.S. District Judge John D. Bates’ courtroom on Thursday, Seifert said Joly was not only the leader of 400 Mawozo but he was referred to by its members as “king” and “boss.”

Seifert said the missionaries were being held as a bargaining chip. There was a gang member in prison, she said as she recounted the testimony of hostage Rachel Miller. That gang member was Joly himself, the prosecutor said.

Although 400 Mawozo initially asked for a $17 million ransom for the group’s release, prosecutors said it was all to build pressure on the government of the Haitian prime minister at the time, Ariel Henry, to release Joly.

Joly’s crime that put him in a Haitian prison remains a mystery. Going into the trial U.S. officials could not say with certainty if he had been convicted of manslaughter in Haiti, and during his time on the stand, he refuted prosecutors’ claim that he had told the FBI he was in prison for murder.

“Absolutely not,” Joly said as he told the court that some of the things he told law enforcement officers as they flew him to the U.S. from Haiti were partly false. “I did not kill anyone. This is absolutely false.”

He was in prison in Haiti, he said, because people were conspiring against him.

Joly’s defense attorney, Allen H Orenberg, told the jury during closing that prosecutors had supplied a lot of “red herrings” in their arguments, but had not proved Joly was involved in the hostage taking — only in smuggling guns.

Orenberg blamed the kidnappings on Lanmò Sanjou, the current leader of 400 Mawozo whom Joly told the court was his cousin.

400 Mawazo, Orenberg argued, was not Joly’s creation; he was “merely a spectator.

None of the missionaries who testified heard any mention of Joly from their captors, Orenberg said. While there are logs of calls from Joly’s phone in prison, no one knows what was discussed in the calls.

Among the other witnesses who testified for the government was Jean “Zo” Pelice. A 400 Mawozo gang member, Pelice was transferred to U.S. custody in May of 2022 after he was charged with hostage-taking for his role in the armed kidnappings.

He and another witness, Jonas Isidor, testified that Joly wanted a big ransom for the hostages’ release because the gang leader knew that no one could pay the amount and his ultimate goal was to use the missionaries as his ticket out of prison.

Orenberg, the defense lawyer, said both men’s testimonies could not be given credence because Pelice had his own criminal case, seemed confused and was “easy to manipulate.” Isidor, he said, had “incentives” like being able to stay in the U.S. and future immigration benefits to testify in the government’s favor.

The 17 Christian missionaries were kidnapped on Oct. 16, 2021 on the eastern outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Their group included married couples, a Canadian national and five children.

Two of the hostages were released on Nov. 20, and three more were released on or about Dec. 5, 2021. The remaining 12 didn’t make it out until Dec. 15, 2021.

Seifert highlighted some key moments in the saga. Joly, she said, had agreed to kidnap the missionaries the morning of Oct. 16 in partnership with Vitel’homme Innocent, the head of the Kraze Barye gang, who is wanted by the FBI and has a $2 million bounty for his capture.

The plan was carried out by 400 Mawozo gang members named Koleg and Gaspiyay. Armed with guns and their faces covered, gang members forced the missionaries’ van off the road on National Road No. 8, which connects the capital to the Dominican Republican and runs through the gangs’ operations in Croix-des-Bouquets.

One of the missionaries immediately texted their social media group informing everyone what was happening and asked for prayers. Two hours later, the missionaries were searched and their valuables were taken. They were then taken to “Location 1,” an unidentified area where they were lined up against a wall and one of the captors told one of the hostages that it was the “last time you will see (the others) alive.”

The location, somewhere near the town of Ganthier, was a house with no windows and secured doors. There were blood splatters and bullet holes on the walls and the missionaries saw two bound people taken outside and subsequently heard gunshots. Call logs show multiple calls between Joly, Lanmò Sanjou and Vitel’homme around this time, Seifert said.

That same day, part of the plot was unfolding 900 miles away in Florida, prosecutors said: Pompano Beach resident Eliande Tunis, who fashioned herself as Joly’s “queen” and a leader of 400 Mawozo’s South Florida’s offshoot, was supposed to secure the delivery of some guns. She was in touch with Joly and later said that he was “having a meeting about where to hold the missionaries.” By evening, a demand for ransom had been made: $17 million.

Over the next days and weeks, FBI agents engaged in a desperate search to locate the hostages. On Nov. 20 after several failed negotiations, hostages Matthew and Rachel Miller were released after Matthew fell sick and Rachel begged for their freedom. Isidor testified that Joly told him to let the sick missionaries go.

On Dec. 5, another ransom agreement was made, Seifert said, acknowledging for the first time publicly that a $350,000 payment was made to secure the rest of the hostages’ freedom.

Lanmò Sanjou, however, only wanted to release hostages Cheryl Noecker and Katie Yoder. However, Noecker wanted to take her 6-year-old son Sheldon with her. After begging, she was allowed to, but as the two got in the car gang members attempted to pull the boy away.

Sheldon grabbed onto the headrest of a seat, trying to hold on, Seifert said, as Noecker grabbed her son and got out. The rest of the missionaries surround the two and insisted that Sheldon be released as well. As tensions ran high, the other children started to cry. After a 30-minute standoff, 400 Mawozo gang members finally relented.

Seifert said the final decision came after Lanmò Sanjou made a phone call.

That call, she said, was to Joly, who made the decision.

The 12 hostages were not released immediately after the ransom was paid. In fact, the gang went silent and negotiations broke down. Days later, the missionaries emerged from a wooden field. They later said they had escaped at 2:30 a.m. by walking down to a nearby stream, crossing it and hiking through the bushes.

One of them then used $5, the only money they had on them, to pay for a call to the group’s director to come pick them up.

Sources in Haiti, familiar with the events, said the missionaries’ release was made to resemble an escape by Lanmò Sanjou, who had gotten into a disagreement with Joly. Despite the ransom payment, Joly did not want to give up his bargaining chip for his freedom, several sources previously told the Miami Herald.

Joly directed each step of 400 Mawozo in the kidnappings, prosecutors said. His business, they stressed, was ransom from kidnappings, which were used to buy guns in the U.S. that were then smuggled into Haiti and used to carry out more kidnappings.

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