Posted on 05/02/2009 7:24:19 AM PDT by csvset
It took seven hours and 40 minutes.
Following an evening-long deliberation Friday, a Schuylkill County jury reached its verdict in the trial of two Shenandoah teens charged in the beating death of Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala, 25. Watch reaction video
Brandon J. Piekarsky, 17, of Shenandoah Heights, was found guilty of one count of simple assault and acquitted of all other charges in-cluding third-degree murder and aggravated assault.
Derrick M. Donchak, 19, was found guilty of one count of simple assault. He was also found guilty of three counts of corruption of minors and three counts of furnishing alcohol to minors. He was acquitted of all other charges, the most serious of which were two counts of aggravated assault.
The ethnically charged case also included ethnic intimidation charges of which the jury found the teens not guilty in the murder of the Mexican immigrant.
Both teens remain free on bail until they are sentenced. Schuylkill President Judge William E. Baldwin, who presided over the trial, ordered a pre-sentencing investigation, which could take weeks to conclude, after which he will sentence Piekarsky and Donchak.
Both teens face a possible one- to two-year sentence on simple assault, which is a second-degree misdemeanor. Donchak also faces a maximum sentence of 2� to five years on each of the three corruption of minors, which are first-degree misdemeanors.
Donchak also faces a maximum sentence of six to 12 months on each of the selling or furnishing liquor charges.
Each “not guilty” verdict was greeted with a chorus of gasps from the audience of about 50 members of the press and public. The room erupted in cheers after all verdicts were read and the deputy sheriffs had to restrain members of the defendants’ families from rushing to them until after the jury had been dismissed.
While the verdicts were read, Tammy Piekarsky, Piekarsky’s mother, was crying. Donchak had wet eyes and Piekarsky appeared jubilant.
After the verdicts were read, the defendants hugged.
“The jury has rendered its verdict. They deliberated a long time and we respect its verdict and we have no further comment,” Schuylkill County District Attorney James P. Goodman said.
“The jury has spoken. We’re deeply gratified with the verdict,” Frederick J. Fanelli, Piekarsky’s lawyer, said. “It’s been a long, grueling trial.”
“It’s a good day for the Donchack family,” Jeffrey M. Markosky, Donchak’s lawyer, said. “I believe they saw the case as it really was.”
Attorneys with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund were “outraged” by what Staff Attorney Gladys Limon called a “disgusting, shameful verdict.”
“Today’s verdict demonstrated a complete failure of the justice system,” she said 15 minutes after the verdict was handed down. “The acts they (Piekarsky and Donchak) engaged in were violent and unjustified.”
Limon said she was in contact with Ramirez’s parents — at home in Mexico — and Crystal Dillman, Ramirez’s fiancee, immediately afterward.
“They’re devastated,” Limon said. “The people who murdered (Luis) are going to continue their lives uninterrupted.”
Limon said MALDEF will push U.S. Attorney Martin C. Carlson to file federal charges against Piekarsky and Donchak.
“I only hope that Luis’ death will not be in vain.”
The message the verdict delivers, Limon said, is “You can kill a person ... and you can continue your life.”
Later, several cars were seen driving through Shenandoah blowing their horns but there were no other disturbances reported in the borough, nor were any disturbances reported around the courthouse.
The teens were charged for their role in the July 12 beating of Ramirez, who died at Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, on July 14, 2008, from injuries suffered in the incident two days earlier.
The five-day trial, which began at 9 a.m. Monday, has drawn international attention because of the racial issues it raised. The prosecution, presented by Goodman and assistant district attorneys Robert P. Frantz and A.J. Serina, rested its case Wednesday after three days of testimony from witnesses of the incident, police and medical experts. The defense team shocked the audience Thursday morning when it rested its case after calling only four witnesses, including two police officers and two witnesses.
After hearing closing statements from both sides Friday morning and taking a lunch recess, Baldwin began instructing the jury at 1:10 p.m.
The all-white jury of six men and six women began deliberating about 3 p.m. Friday.
Jurors came back about 4:10 p.m. asking Baldwin to define three of the charges: ethnic intimidation, corruption of minors and recklessly endangering another person. Baldwin took about 10 minutes to do so and returned the jury to the deliberation room.
The jury ate dinner about 6:30 p.m. and resumed considering whether prosecutors proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Piekarsky, 17, of Shenandoah Heights, and Donchak, 19, of Shenandoah, were guilty of assaulting, and in Piekarsky’s case killing, Ramirez.
Shortly after 10 p.m., the jury once again asked Baldwin to explain reckless endangerment to them. Then, at 10:25 p.m., the jury again asked about ethnic intimidation.
Foreman speaks
The jury reached a verdict about 10:40 p.m.
After the trial, jury Foreman Eric Macklin, Schuylkill Haven, explained his vote.
“I think it’s horrible what happened to Luis Ramirez,” he said. “My fellow jurors agree. I personally was very close to finding them both guilty on every serious count but I was not sure beyond a reasonable doubt.
“I despise racism in every form.”
Piekarsky was charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, simple assault, ethnic intimidation, criminal solicitation/hindering apprehension or prosecution and purchase, consumption, possession or transportation of liquor. Third-degree murder, with a possible maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in a state correctional institution, is the most serious degree of homicide Piekarsky faced.
Donchak, was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, ethnic intimidation, corruption of minors, purchase or consumption of alcohol by a minor and selling or furnishing alcohol to minors. The most serious sentence he faced was 10 to 20 years in a state correctional institution for aggravated assault.
The two were among six teens that the prosecution said were involved in the beating incident which was racially motivated.
According to a criminal complaint, the juveniles drank beer and malt liquor in the woods and attended block party before encountering Ramirez and a 15-year-old female at the intersection of Vine and Lloyd streets, Shenandoah, at 11:15 or 11:30 p.m. July 12.
The six teenagers allegedly began making comments toward Ramirez, which led to verbal responses from Ramirez and eventually fighting between him and some of the teens.
During the fight, according to the criminal complaint, Walsh punched Ramirez in the face and caused him to fall and strike his head on the roadway, after which Piekarsky kicked him in the side of his head.
All Schuylkill County charges against Walsh, which included one count of criminal homicide, were formally dropped on April 17 because Walsh entered a guilty plea in federal court to charges under the Fair Housing Act. Those court documents have been sealed. Walsh testified against Donchak and Piekarsky on Tuesday.
Medical experts testified Wednesday that Ramirez died from two severe head injuries.
The defense had argued that the incident was a street fight gone bad, that Ramirez was an aggressor who called several friends to the fight, one of whom had a gun, and that there was reasonable doubt about whether it was Piekarsky or Brian Scully, 18, who is facing charges in juvenile court, who kicked Ramirez in the head. The defense attacked the credibility of Walsh and Scully’s testimony saying they were cooperating with the prosecution to protect themselves.
“He was beaten badly. His skull was fractured in two spots,” Frantz said in Friday morning’s closing arguments in a packed courtroom.
The defense argued the boys did nothing wrong and prosecutors rushed to judgment without fully considering the evidence.
“Is it fair to these kids who are on trial for their lives?” Frederick J. Fanelli, Pottsville, Piekarsky’s lawyer, asked of investigators not showing evidence to an eyewitness.
Markosky said prosecutors had not proved any hatred was involved.
“This was a fight that developed spontaneously,” Markosky said. “There is an absolute lack of evidence that Mr. Donchak’s actions were caused by racial hatred.”
In asking that his client be acquitted, Markosky said the case comes down to witness credibility and that neither Brian Scully nor Colin J. Walsh, two other teenagers charged in connection with the fight, were credible.
“His job is to make sure others take the punishment” Markosky said of Scully, 18, of Shenandoah, who is facing juvenile charges in the case. “He’s protecting himself. He’s the one who’s a racist.”
He discounted the prosecution’s production of a photograph of Donchack wearing a U.S. Border Patrol T-shirt at a Halloween party.
“A T-shirt is not an expression of what your inner beliefs are,” he said.
Fanelli said the government admits the lack of credibility of Scully and Walsh by leaving charges open against Scully and not yet setting the sentence against Walsh.
“If (the government) believed Walsh and Scully, they wouldn’t hold these things hanging over their heads,” he said.
He took particular issue with prosecutors’ handling of the issue of Scully’s shoes.
Arielle Garcia, a friend of Ramirez who was at the scene of the beating, said she believed the person who kicked Ramirez had white and blue shoes, while other testimony had Piekarsky wearing gray shoes. Investigators did not show Scully’s shoes to Garcia, and Fanelli said that showed their bias.
“This prosecution has run from the truth,” he said. “She identified the kicker, the footwear.”
Not only that, Fanelli said, but when Garcia said “You killed him” to Scully, he did not deny it, instead saying Ramirez was still breathing.
“That is called consciousness of guilt,” Fanelli said.
Ramirez also was not entirely innocent, continuing to fight voluntarily when the boys started to walk away, according to Fanelli.
“Ramirez was planning for battle,” he said.
All that adds up to reasonable doubt and mandates acquittal of Piekarsky, Fanelli said.
“I’m asking you to find him not guilty. Thank you very much,” Fanelli said.
Frantz argued that the prosecution did not rush to judgment, instead making careful choices about whom to charge and with what.
He did not deny some of his witnesses gave inconsistent statements, but attributed that to the desire to protect their friends and teammates in football and other sports at Shenandoah Valley High School.
“Team bonding runs deep,” Frantz said.
However, the defense says Scully, Walsh and Joseph Benjamin Lawson, another teenager who was at the scene of the beating, are now are testifying truthfully, and Scully and Walsh have accepted responsibility for what they did.
Lawson, who has not been charged, knew what occurred and pointed the finger at Donchack and Piekarsky, Frantz said.
“He witnessed it and deep inside, you know that,” Frantz said.
Garcia should not sway the jurors against a guilty verdict, he said.
“Much has been made of Arielle Garcia. They’re trying to create doubt. She was unsure of almost everything,” Frantz said.
In an unusual move, Frantz said the two police officers who testified they heard Garcia say Scully kicked Ramirez, Robert M. Senape of West Mahanoy Township and Michelle Ashman of Frackville, were not telling the truth.
He said Piekarsky was the one who showed a guilty conscience when he returned to the scene with Shenandoah police officer Jason Hayes — his mother’s boyfriend. Furthermore, when Piekarsky learned Ramirez was in bad shape, he immediately called his friends to try to start a cover up of the affair.
“He started the lies,” Frantz said. “That’s self-preservation.”
I have always had a problem with the practice of people being brought up on Federal charges when they are acquitted of State charges. It smacks of double jeopardy, and the fact that the charges are differnenet doesn't mitigate that. It's an evasion of Constitutional protections, and is almost always applied when the "victim" is a "minority".
That is the history of the world. Americans are no better or worse than other groups throughout history. How do you feel about the Spanish. Somehow they have escaped all the bad things that Americans are accused of, yet they were the original invaders and usurpers. Hell, the word "hispanic" even seems to honor them.
i read it differently... one group of thugs started up with one guy who was walking with a girl...
Don’t get me started on those Spaniards. I read a book not too long ago titled “AZTEC” by I beleive Gary Jennings. It was very enraging to read about things that I had not thought about too much. To this day I have to remind myself that it happened a long time ago.
Ok. But why blame the Americans? The history of the world is one people taking over another. I won't apologize, nor will I excuse. But my point is that "hispanics" don't blame the Spanish for the genocide they perpretrated, yet they blame Americans for their ills.
It's insane! They adopt the "spanish" part of their name from the very people who took their land and killed their people, but Americans get the blame. What is up with that?!?!?!?
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