Defense lawyer: Teen who took deal killed immigrant

1:25 PM EDT, April 27, 2009




POTTSVILLE - The Mexican man fatally injured during a fight in Schuylkill County last July was killed by a blow from a teenager against whom charges have been dropped, defense attorneys for the two remaining defendants told a jury here this morning.

And that blow came only after two other Latinos called by the victim, Luis Ramirez, 25, arrived at the scene, the attorneys said. A third Hispanic whom Ramirez called via cell phone later showed up with a handgun that he pointed at the defendants, the attorneys said. Ramirez was in the country illegally.

Colin Walsh, 18, a week ago pleaded guilty to violating Ramirez's civil rights in the federal Fair Housing Act in exchange for county charges -- including third-degree murder -- being dropped, attorney Frederick Fanelli said today.

Fanelli questioned that arrangement, and asserted that Colin landed the blow that eventually killed Ramirez.



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Jury selection in immigrant beating death trial Video Fanelli represents Brandon J. Piekarsky, 17. Derrick M. Donchak, 19, is the other defendant on trial. Both defendants are from Shenandoah.

Fanelli also said Ramirez was the aggressor in the incidents, confronting the three boys and three others by angrily coming out of the shadows at a playground after they had told a 15-year-old girl she was out too late. Prosecutors in their opening statement said the girl was Ramirez's fiancee. That contradicted earlier statements that Ramirez was engaged to Crystal Dillman, by whom he has fathered two children.

After Ramirez briefly exchanged punches with two of the teenagers, Fanelli told the jury, the encounter ended and the accused were walking away, with Donchak saying, "It's over!" But when two people Ramirez had phoned arrived, he charged the teens and landed six punches to the back of head of a fourth teen, Brian Scully.

The defense lawyers said it was Scully who first yelled racial slurs at Ramirez and scuffled with him. Scully is charged as a juvenile in the case.

That rekindled the fight, and Walsh hit Ramirez with a "runner" -- a running, blind punch that knocked him down so hard his head bounced off the concrete street, both prosecutors and defense attorneys said.

The attorneys disagreed over whether that blow killed Ramirez. Fanelli insisted it did: "He was dead when he hit the ground."

-- Reporting by John J. Moser, The Morning Call

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