SAN DIEGO: Vigilante thugs sentenced
in beating of elderly Mexican workers
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan
San Diego, Alta California - November 21, 2002 - (ACN) - In a case that is now over two years old, the last three of eight thugs, who savagely attacked five elderly Mexican migrant workers in North San Diego County, were sentenced yesterday to state prison where they now face an uncertain fate.
In the afternoon and evening of Wednesday July 5, 2000 in the Carmel Valley of the City of San Diego, five Mexican migrant workers came under a vicious attack by eight anti-Mexican vigilantes. The migrants were savagely beaten and terrorized for hours and three had to be hospitalized at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla. They were beaten with iron pipes, stabbed with a pitch fork and were repeatedly shot with high power pellet guns. One of the migrants almost lost his right eye when one of the thugs shot point blank into his face. The workers were attacked in their well hidden migrant camp located in the heavy brush in what is called McGonigle Canyon. The migrant camp was located about 300 yards south of Evergreen Nursery where three of the Mexican migrants worked for many years. The nursery is located on the 7200 block of Black Mountain Road in north San Diego.
Three of the victims that worked at Evergreen Nursery are elderly. Andres Ramos Diaz is 66 years old and was one of the first migrants attacked while going to the camp after work around 4:00 P.M. He stated that a white van full of Anglos approached him, got off, and started shooting at him while he ran. He ran into the heavy brush and they continued terrorizing him for hours throwing rocks and yelling racial epithets. Mr. Diaz stated that the vigilantes yelled, "You fucking wetbacks, go back to Mexico and don't come back!" He was shot repeatedly on the back and had to undergo surgery to remove the imbedded pellets. Mr. Ramos Diaz stated, "they hunted me down like a rabbit and threw rocks at me as if I was an animal."
The white vigilante thugs next went to the migrant camp were 71 year old Evergreen Nursery worker Anastasio Irigoyen was beaten without mercy over the head and stabbed viciously with a pitch fork. Mr. Irigoyen spent three days at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla and was released to his sons from La Paz, Baja California. Today, Mr. Irigoyen suffers from a series of cerebral injuries and is now unable to carry a coherent conversation.
The third Evergreen Nursery worker was shot fifteen times with pellet guns. He is 68 year old Alfredo Ayala Sanchez. Mr. Sanchez almost lost his right eye when the thugs shot him point blank in the face. Today Mr. Sanchez still has five pellets imbedded in his body.
There has been very little information released on the fourth and fifth victims who worked in the adjacent tomato fields. The dead body of a Mexican migrant worker from Oaxaca, Mexico was found about 500 yards from where the beatings took place. The body was found on July 2, 2000, three days before the beatings. The body appeared to be a lynching victim and was dragged for 200 yards on his face and thrown into a ravine according to San Diego police authorities. The eight vigilante thugs were never charged with the murder.
Yesterday, the last three of the eight thugs were sentenced in a case that took over 2 years and 4 months to investigate and prosecute. Judge James Milliken of El Cajón Superior Court sentenced Adam Ketsdever and Bradly Davidofsky to a mere 2 years in prison and another, Steven Deboer, to only one year. In cases like this, where there is an obvious racial injustice in sentencing, real justice is meted out inside prison. State prison inmates do not like child molesters nor thugs that beat up on defenseless elderly people. They will be constantly challenged to prove just how tough they are.
The other five thugs received even lesser sentences because they were minors at the time of the crimes. They received sentences ranging from six to nine months in county jail. San Diego District Attorney Hector Jiménez was disillusioned with the light sentencing by the white judge. The five juvenile thugs are Michael Rose, Jason Beever, Morgan Manduley, Kevin Williams and Nicholas Fileccia.
Mario Cuevas, of the Méxican Consulate in San Diego, was present yesterday at the sentencing. His opinion was that the sentences were very light. He said in Spanish, "No es lo que esperábamos. Pero creo que el mensaje es claro: ese tipo de crímenes no será tolerado." ( "It was not what we were hoping for. But I believe the message is clear: these types of crimes will not be tolerated.")
Related La Voz de Aztlan articles:
"Hunting of Mexicans along US/Mexico Border Escalates - Two Dead"
"Federal Investigation Requested in Border "Sniper Shootings" of Mexicans"
Information on Jewish Defense League Terrorist Glenn Spencer of American Border Patrol
