LA VOZ DE AZTLAN
Los Angeles, Alta California
October 14, 2010,
Guilty verdict for two racist murderers of
Mexican immigrant Luis RamirezA federal jury has just convicted two Shenendoah, Pennsylvania thugs of a hate crime in the fatal beating of a Mexican immigrant. The horrific beating of 25-year-old Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala of Guanajuato,Mexico occurred on July 12, 2008 and he died in intensive care two days later. Ramirez was the father of three children.
The federal jury in Scranton convicted Derrick Donchak and Brandon Piekarsky of violating the civil rights of , who died following a confrontation with a group of white high school football players in the former mining town of Shenandoah. The jury also convicted Donchak of two other counts related to a plot to cover up the beating in cahoots with local cops, one who was dating his mother.
Donchak, 20, sobbed like a little girl as the verdict was read. Piekarsky, 18, put his head in his hands. Both were led away in handcuffs and ordered held behind bars pending their January 24 sentencing. They both face a sentence of life in prison.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Donchak and Piekarsky beat and kicked Ramirez to death because they hated Mexicans and wanted them out of their town.
“They showed no remorse that night … no sense of responsibility for having beaten a man to the point of death,” Justice Department prosecutor Myesha Braden told jurors Wednesday in her closing argument.
Federal charges were brought against Piekarsky and Donchak after an all-white jury acquitted them of serious state charges. Latino activists decried the May 2009 verdict, calling Ramirez’s death part of a rising tide of hate crimes against Latinos. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell appealed for a US Justice Department prosecution.
Piekarsky was accused of delivering a fatal kick to Ramirez’s head after he’d been knocked unconscious by another teen, Colin Walsh, who pleaded guilty in federal court and testified against his childhood friends last week.
After the fight, the teens met and hatched a plan in which they would falsely tell police that no one was drunk, did any kicking or used any racial slurs.
Both defendants were convicted of a federal hate crime and Donchak was also convicted of two counts that he conspired with Shenandoah police to cover up the crime. The accused Shenandoah police officers are scheduled to go on trial early next year.
Related La Voz de Aztlan report:
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