Eric Volz

Who is Eric Volz?

Eric Volz is the managing director of the David House Agency, an international crisis resource agency based in Los Angeles.

Eric formed the agency after his own experience detained abroad, sentenced to a 30-year prison term in Nicaragua following his wrongful conviction for the November 2006 rape and murder of ex-girlfriend Doris Ivania Jiménez in San Juan del Sur.

An appeals court overturned the conviction on December 17, 2007, and Volz was released from prison on December 21, 2007. He left Nicaragua immediately and went into hiding in an unknown location outside Nicaragua because of death threats and over concerns for his physical safety.

Friends and supporters in both countries had insisted on Volz's innocence, claiming that the trial court ignored evidence, and that Volz was the victim of anti-gringo sentiment. Opponents in Nicaragua protested against his release due to what they perceived as special consideration as an American, pressure from the United States government, and accusations that Volz's family bribed the appellate court judges.

Upon his return to the United States, Eric wrote a memoir about his experience, Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua. The book was published by St. Martin's Press.