Jailbreaks, Submarines, a Gold-Plated AK-47: El Chapo’s Trial Will Tell an Epic Tale - The New York Times

But public documents have provided some clues as to who might take the stand. The potential witnesses include Mr. Ramírez; Vicente Zambada-Niebla, a son of Mr. Guzmán's longtime deputy; Pedro and Margarito Flores, brothers from Chicago who have previously testified that they served as his American distributors; and Damaso Lopez Nuñez, the warden from the Puente Grande prison who helped him escape.

Attacking the credibility of these witnesses will likely be a central thrust of the defense, which will be handled by three experienced lawyers. The lead lawyer, A. Eduardo Balarezo, is a cartel specialist who once represented Mr. Beltrán-Leyva. Mr. Balarezo is joined by Jeffrey Lichtman, who is perhaps best known for keeping the Mafia scion, John Gotti, Jr., out of prison. Rounding out the team is William Purpura, who once worked for the Baltimore drug kingpin Richard Anthony Wilford.

Almost from the start, the legal team has protested that Mr. Guzmán's conditions of confinement, and the Matterhorn of evidence provided by the government through discovery have deprived him of the possibility of a fair trial. In the last few weeks alone, prosecutors have handed the defense 14,000 new pages of documents — many of them in Spanish. The documents are said to offer details on some of the 33 murders that Mr. Guzmán is accused of committing.

"In all of their collective experience, defense counsel have never seen anything like this," the lawyers recently wrote. More than once, they have called the prosecution "a trial by ambush."

But even though the lawyers have complained at length, Mr. Guzmán has scarcely said a word at pretrial hearings. His typical demeanor in the courtroom is a loose, vacant gaze and an almost medicated silence, which seem at odds with his vicious reputation.

His only public statement came in March when he wrote a letter to Judge Brian M. Cogan that opened with the magisterial line: "I, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, want to explain to you the problems that I have regarding my case." Mr. Guzmán told the judge that he had not seen his wife — the former beauty queen Emma Coronel Aispuro — in more than a year. He also noted that he missed his twin daughters, who were six at the time.

In September, the daughters, Emali and Maria Joaquína, celebrated their seventh birthdays with a lavish Barbie-themed party (carnival rides, gold chandeliers, scores of pink balloons). Photos of the party became an instant social media sensation.