Eric Volz (born May 19, 1979^[1]) is an American entrepreneur, author,^[2] and the managing director of The David House Agency,^[3] an international crisis resource agency based in Los Angeles that specializes in wrongful imprisonment and politically motivated detentions abroad.

In 2007, Volz was wrongfully convicted of the November 2006 rape and murder of ex-girlfriend Doris Ivania Jiménez in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, and sentenced to 30 years in prison.^[4][5][6] An appellate court overturned the conviction on December 17, 2007, and Volz was released four days later. He left Nicaragua immediately due to death threats.

Supporters insisted on Volz's innocence, arguing that the trial court ignored evidence and that anti-gringo sentiment influenced the outcome.^[7] Opponents in Nicaragua protested his release, citing what they perceived as preferential treatment as an American, U.S. government pressure, and allegations that Volz's family bribed the appellate court judges.^[8][9]

Volz's involvement has been reported in connection with several high-profile cases, including Matthew and Grace Huang, Jason Puracal, the American Hikers in Iran case, Amir Hekmati, Kenneth Bae, and Amanda Knox.^[5]

Volz was born to Mexican-American parents in Northern California^[2] and raised in the Christian faith.^[1] Fluent in Spanish, he received a degree in Latin American Studies from the University of California, San Diego.^[10]

In 2004, Volz moved to Nicaragua, where he launched a bilingual magazine called El Puente ("EP Magazine"), established an investment consulting practice, and became co-owner of a local Century 21 franchise.^[11]

On November 21, 2006, Doris Ivania Jiménez was murdered at midday in her clothing store, Sol Fashion, in San Juan del Sur, a coastal town near Rivas. Police issued warrants for four men. Two were local Nicaraguan men with prior records: Julio Martín Chamorro López (30), known as "Rosita," and Nelson Antonio López Danglas (24), known as "Krusty," both of whom bore physical scratches consistent with a struggle at the time of their arrest.^[12] A third suspect, college student Armando Llanes (20), was never arrested after his university provided a partial alibi. Volz, who had dated Jiménez before breaking up in mid-2006, was the fourth suspect.^[13]

Danglas was offered full immunity in exchange for testifying against Volz and was the only witness to place Volz near the crime scene.^[8] Chamorro later told a journalist that his testimony had been coerced by police.^[14]

Volz was arrested on November 23, 2006, and charged with murder. The defense presented ten alibi witnesses who placed him in Managua at the time of the crime, along with cell phone tower records and time-stamped instant-messaging logs.^[15] No physical evidence linked Volz to the crime, and exculpatory evidence was excluded. The trial judge, Ivette Toruño Blanco, excluded seven of the ten alibi witnesses on the grounds that their testimony would be redundant; those permitted to testify were not present with Volz at the time of the murder.^[15]

The trial was widely described as chaotic. On at least two occasions the courthouse was surrounded by protesters.^[16] At the conclusion of the three-day trial, Judge Toruño Blanco convicted Volz and sentenced him to 30 years in prison.^[6] The New York Times reported that the case "proved not who killed Ms. Jimenez, but that justice in Nicaragua is a nebulous concept, subjective to the point of abstraction."^[6]

Volz's family and supporters launched the Free Eric Volz campaign, which included a YouTube documentary and a website called Friends of Eric Volz.^[17] The San Francisco Chronicle described it as an early example of social media being used to raise awareness about a wrongful imprisonment case.^[18] The case received substantial media coverage, including a front-page feature in the Wall Street Journal.^[16]

On December 17, 2007, an appeals court overturned the conviction. The local judge delayed signing the release order,^[19] and Volz was not freed until December 21. His passport and $10,000 bail were not returned.^[16] He left Nicaragua immediately and went into hiding due to death threats.^[8] He is listed in the Innocence Center's national database of exonerees.^[20]

Former Communist leader Daniel Ortega had returned to power in Nicaragua shortly after Jiménez's death.^[21] A senior U.S. State Department official told media that the U.S. ambassador had raised the case with officials up to and including President Ortega, though the official noted concern that the Nicaraguan government did not want to appear to be yielding to international pressure.^[8] The Sandinista government's chief prosecutor described Volz's release as a "barbarity."^[19]

In 2009, Volz filed a 700-page petition, Volz v. Nicaragua, to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States, after Nicaragua announced it was reopening the case against him.^[22] His lawyers argued that retrying an acquitted person violates Nicaragua's constitution and alleged political motivation for the action.^[23]

In May 2010, St. Martin's Press published Volz's memoir, Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua.^[2] The book's foreword was written by investigative journalist Bill Kurtis. A paperback edition followed in May 2011. Publishers Weekly wrote that "there is much pain in Volz's memoir of being a young American in a near-perfect frame-up involving murder, tabloid headlines, police corruption, and political power plays in Nicaragua."^[24]

Following his wrongful imprisonment,^[5][4] Volz began advising families in similar situations, which evolved into a private consultancy in 2009. In 2011, he established The David House Agency.^[25] The New York Times described the agency as "a hybrid of international detective work, legal research, political analysis, and diplomatic lobbying."^[5]

Cases in which the agency has been involved include:

• Matthew and Grace Huang (Qatar) – American parents accused in the death of their adopted daughter; acquitted on appeal.^[26]
• Jason Puracal (Nicaragua) – U.S. citizen imprisoned on drug trafficking charges; conviction overturned.^[27]
• American Hikers in Iran case – Three U.S. citizens detained after crossing the Iranian border; later released.^[25]
• Amir Hekmati (Iran) – Former U.S. Marine sentenced to death on espionage charges; later released.^[28]
• Kenneth Bae (North Korea) – Missionary convicted and sentenced to hard labor; later released.^[5]
• Amanda Knox (Italy) – American student whose murder conviction was overturned on appeal.^[14]
• Raffaele Sollecito (Italy) – Italian student convicted alongside Knox; conviction also overturned.^[14]
• Scott McMahon (Philippines) – American acquitted of sexual assault after five years in prison.^[29]

• David House Agency
• Friends of Eric Volz
• Outside magazine feature story – June 2007
• Washington Post – May 7, 2007
• NPR: Family – April 29, 2007
• Dateline NBC report on the case
• Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua