‘Honey, we are dead’: inside Martine Moïse’s testimony in the Haiti assassination trial

In a Miami courtroom this month, testimony about the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse returned to the night that shook Haiti and the Haitian Diaspora.

Martine Moïse, the former first lady who survived the July 7, 2021, attack, described what she saw and heard inside the couple’s Port-au-Prince home. Defense attorneys challenged her credibility, questioning her memory and suggesting inconsistencies in her account.

Prosecutors argued that her account has remained consistent since the immediate aftermath of the killing. They pointed to a July 9, 2021, FBI interview conducted days after the assassination, saying her statements then align with her testimony in court.

Editor’s note: The following responses are excerpted from court testimony and have been edited only for length and minor punctuation.

What woke Martine Moïse?

Q: And I want to now turn to July 7th, 2021. As you are sleeping after going to bed at 10:00 p.m., what time were you awakened?
A: Around 1 o’clock in the morning I was awakened by gunfire.

What did President Moïse say?

Q: So what did he say to you?
A: I woke up and I said, “Honey, what’s going on? What happened?” He said, “Honey, we are dead.”

What did she do with her children?

Q: What happened next?
A: After that I crawl on all four, went to see where the children were because I was trying to avoid them from coming up to see what was going on.

Q: What happened when you go into the room and you see them?
A: I instructed them to go to the bathroom because the bathroom had no windows.

Did she return upstairs?

Q: So, after you go and you check on your children and you go back upstairs, could you talk to us about what you were hearing as you go back upstairs?
A: I heard a lot of gunfire. And the same way I went down is the same way I went back up, lots of gunfire.

Did the attackers enter the bedroom?

Q: Mrs. Moïse, you are hearing this gunfire and you are trying to use the mattress as cover. Do people eventually come into your room?
A: Yes, people came in because I heard a loud noise like the door went “bow,” and I felt my body going like this under the bed.

What language were the intruders speaking?

Q: Now, what language are these people speaking?
A: They were speaking in Spanish.

What did she hear them say?

Q: So they rummage, and then they’re looking and describing the areas around. What else do you hear?
A: I heard them speaking. I could no longer understood what they were saying, but I caught two names: Jefe and Pibe.

Q: Mrs. Moïse, had you ever heard the name Pibe before?
A: No, this is the only time I heard it. I never heard it before, and I never heard it after.

What happened after she was shot?

Q: What happens after you are shot multiple times?
A: After I finish kind of letting him know that I was still alive and that I had not died, I don’t know if they were looking for something in the bedroom and they finally found it. I heard someone giving his description who answered to him. And automatically, right there and then, the person that was standing at his feet shot him. It’s the very same sound I heard while I was being shot.

Where in the room did this happen?

Q: So, Mrs. Moïse, when you walk into the room, what side of the bed is your husband on?
A: He’s on this other side.

Q: And for the record, that is the right side of the bed?
A: Yes. If you stand in front of the bed, it will be on your right-hand side.

What did she do after being shot?

Q: What happens after that?
A: After that, I closed my eyes. I didn’t open them again, but I could hear the people that were inside the house walking all over the house.

What did the attackers do to her?

Q: What, if anything, was done to you before that?
A: Before they left, I felt someone grabbing my leg. That person pulled me and flipped me on my back, and I felt a flashlight in my eyes.

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