Man stabbed to death after argument over speaking English

[Jeanfromfillmore]

Man stabbed to death after argument over speaking English
A Hispanic Immokalee farm worker charged with stabbing a teenage farm worker to death early Saturday after an argument over speaking English was advised of his rights Sunday at his first appearance hearing.
Mauricio Escalante, 33, who has no permanent address, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, not premeditated, at his hearing before Circuit Judge Christine Greider, a Hendry Circuit judge who set bond at $500,000.
Escalante, who will be arraigned Jan. 11, faces life in prison on the first-degree felony charge involving the death of 17-year-old Charlie Guzman. No further information was immediately available about Guzman, a juvenile.
Collier County Sheriff's reports say Escalante blurted out that he had been defending himself. Under the U.S. Constitution, spontaneous statements blurted out before suspects are advised of their Miranda Rights, including the right to remain silent, are admissible at trial.
But local defense attorney Lee Hollander, who is not Escalante's attorney but has defended suspects in murder cases, said the prosecution doesn't have to use the statement at trial.
"And the defense may or may not be able to get it in because it's exculpatory, not incriminatory," Hollander said, referring to an admission favorable to a defendant that helps clear him of guilt. "Self-defense is a defense to the crime."
Sheriff's reports provide this account:
Between 3 a.m. and 3:34 a.m., the victim and his friends gathered at a laundry area at the farmworker tenant apartments on Colorado Avenue. There already were three others there and the two groups began talking until a dispute erupted involving the victim's group speaking English, not Spanish.
The argument turned physical when an unidentified man and one of the victim's friends began a fist fight. Escalante was identified by witnesses as being one of the three men originally in the laundry area.
When the fight began, he fled to an apartment about 100 feet away and ran back with a 8-inch long weapon with a brown or yellow handle. He ran toward the victim and began fighting, hitting him in the stomach.
"(The victim) screamed as if he had been severely injured and then retaliated by striking Mr. Escalante with his fist several times," the report by Investigator William Still says. "The men fell to the ground and (the victim) landed on top of Mr. Escalante."
The others separated the men and scattered in opposite directions. The victim walked a short distance before collapsing of injuries from at least three stab wounds to his right chest, right lower abdomen, and left groin area.
A Collier Emergency Medical Services ambulance rushed him to NCH North Naples Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Deputies responding to the crime scene were told Escalante was the attacker and they found him sitting on a door step of a tenant room. When approached by a deputy, he blurted out that he had been defending himself. The deputy then advised him of his Miranda Rights and Escalante invoked his right to remain silent, refusing to talk further.
Witnesses identified Escalante when Still showed them a six-photo lineup. They also told Still no one else had physical contact with the victim during the fight.
Escalante provided four different names to detectives before he was identified through fingerprints at the jail.
Collier and Lee county court records show no prior arrests, but a jail official said Sunday that he had been in the jail on Dec. 21, 2008, to sober up after he was held under the Marchman Act. The 1993 state law involves people under the influence of drugs or alcohol being held to sober up because they're a danger to themselves or others.
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/...der-co-worker/


“Until the murder, he didn’t have a criminal history with us,” Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Karie Partington said.
In two years, about 2,200 illegal immigrants have been either deported or are awaiting deportation through the sheriff’s efforts. Among that many cases, there are bound to be a few where the triggering offenses seem minor or the hardship upon family members here legally seems great.
But there are hardships to be borne by turning a blind eye toward illegal immigrants among us.
Ask the family of Charlie Guzman.
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/...n/?partner=RSS


Opinion piece on the killing for speaking English

I swear we don’t plan this stuff out.
But no sooner than does a series of articles about the Collier County Sheriff’s Office program to deport troublesome illegal aliens conclude than an illegal alien is in the headlines, and not in a good way.
The sheriff’s program, as outlined in stories Sunday and Monday, targets illegal immigrants who run afoul of the law. Deputies, through extra training, are empowered to enforce federal laws and begin deportation proceedings as they see fit. In places without the program, local authorities have to rely on federal agents to undertake the deportation process against known illegal immigrants residing in their jails, a demand the feds are not always prepared to meet.
The program and the articles about it elicited the predictable responses from good-hearted people who see tragedy in the separation of families. They fret over the anxiety experienced by those who skirted the rules to find a better life in the United States yet are one traffic stop away from losing it.
Then along comes Mauricio Escalante. The 33-year-old illegal immigrant was arrested Saturday for stabbing to death a 17-year-old on the streets of Immokalee.
The teenager’s affront that set off the fatal confrontation — daring to speak English in America.
According to Sheriff’s Office reports, around 3 a.m. Saturday Charlie Guzman and some friends gathered at the laundry of an apartment complex on Colorado Avenue. Three others, including Escalante, were already there and the two groups began talking until a dispute erupted over the victim’s group speaking English, not Spanish.
Escalante went to a nearby apartment, got a knife, and fatally stabbed Guzman, according to reports.
So much for the notion that illegal immigrants are universally a hard-working, law abiding set committed to doing the jobs Americans won’t do, all while trying to assimilate.
While plenty of people in the community of illegal immigrants, a majority, no doubt, fit that description, there are bad actors in the group.
The bad actors are the ones targeted by the sheriff’s program. For proof of that, one need look no further than Escalante. A year ago, he wound up in jail because deputies found him so drunk he was deemed to be a threat to himself or others.
But being drunk out of your mind in public isn’t the sort of thing that gets you deported under the sheriff’s system.