Sanon dropped; plot shifts to Judge Thélot — and from arrest to killing

By June 2021 the plotters concluded Sanon lacked the constitutional qualifications and popular support to lead, and switched their backing to former Supreme Court judge Wendelle Coq Thélot. A plan to seize Moïse at the airport on June 19 and fly him into exile failed. Prosecutors say the plot then progressed from forcibly removing Moïse to assassinating him — the evolution at the heart of both 2026 trials. Sanon's own defence — that he was sidelined — matches this part of the chronology; the dispute is over what he knew afterwards.