Romeo Aguilar-Lopez, the father of Virgilio Aguilar-Mendez, responds to the news of his son’s upcoming release from jail on Friday, March 1, 2024. | Wilkine Brutus, WLRN
Published on March 4, 2024 at 11:17 am
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After months of national uproar in response to police body cam footage, prosecutors dropped an aggravated manslaughter case against an indigenous Guatemalan teen charged in death of St . Johns County police sergeant who, after a physical confrontation, died of a heart attack.
The confrontation happened after St. Johns County Sgt. Michael Kunovich approached Virgilio Aguilar-Mendez, then 18, as he was eating near a motel where he was staying with fellow farm workers.
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Kunovich reported Aguilar-Mendez as a suspicious “Hispanic male” and stopped him and questioned him in English. It was unclear whether the teen understood the police commands. Aguilar-Mendez resisted when the officer suddenly tried to pat him for weapons.
After a physical struggle involving two more officers, Kunovich later suffered a heart attack and died at a nearby hospital. He was 52.
READ MORE: Legal questions raised after farmworker is charged in death of police sergeant
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Court proceedings were in limbo after a St. Johns County judge ordered Aguilar-Mendez to take a monthslong jail-based competency class to learn the American judicial system before his case could move forward.
Aguilar-Mendez, 19, was ruled in January unfit to stand trial because the undocumented teen, who was an unaccompanied immigrant minor in 2022, speaks Mam, one of several Mayan languages in Guatemala — he doesn’t speak English and has a limited grasp on Spanish.
The Guatemala Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach, which had provided legal assistance for the teen, enlisted the services of a prominent defense attorney, Jose Baez.
Baez — whose past clients include Casey Anthony and Aaron Hernandez — had filed a recent motion to dismiss the case and told WLRN it was a clear case of racial profiling and he “would be shocked if this case went to trial.”
“You’re going to stop someone, and stop their case, keep them incarcerated until you can educate them on our system? ” Baez said. “He’s gotten a feel of what our system is all about, and it’s not pretty.”
The State Attorney’s Office 7th Circuit did not respond to WLRN’s request for comment.
Baez said he demanded a speedy trial and insisted on cameras in the courtroom, which, in some ways, helped persuade prosecutors to drop the case to avoid further public scrutiny.
“I reached out to numerous individuals, not only in the national media, but also in entertainment — [filmmaker] Scott Budnick, who is a social justice champion, and as well as Kim Kardashian.”
The celebrities, who often advocate against mistreatment in the criminal justice system, had joined the cry to release the teen.
“I think they [prosecutors] took an objective approach to the case and they realized they couldn’t prove it and that these charges are not sustainable,” Baez said. “That these charges and the facts don’t add up.”
It had been more than eight months since Aguilar-Mendez was placed in the Volusia County Jail.
The center has rallied support for Aguilar-Mendez through a national online petition, calling for his release from jail and dismissal of charges. They had collected nearly 600,000 signatures.
Once released from the Volusia County jail, as per protocol, Virgilio Aguilar-Mendez will be on immigration hold until he’s released. Prior to the arrest, he was waiting immigration court to hear his separate immigration case.
Mari Blanco said the center will move the teen to Lake Worth Beach and get him housing and other resources, which includes staying with a Man-speaking roommate.
“We’ll automatically make sure to schedule all of his medical appointments to make sure that he’s healthy,” Blanco said. “But, most importantly, we want to make sure that we welcome him with a community — have him feel like he is not alone because he has been alone this entire time.”
Blanco said police officers have a hard time dealing with the working class community.
“This is an issue that we see daily,” Blanco said. “Fortunately, for Virgilio, it did catch national attention and we were able to secure these really strong attorneys for the case.”
Civil attorney Phillip Arroyo told WLRN Aguilar-Mendez is under what’s known as an “immigration detainer,” which doesn’t mean that the teen will be deported. That just means U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has 48 hours to pick him up, Arroyo said.
“If they do not pick him up within 48 hours, he is most likely automatically released.”
Arroyo said Aguilar-Mendez’s immigration attorney, Henry Lim, has already filed a motion to withdraw the detainer as soon as the state announced that they were dropping the case. Lim will “represent Aguilar-Mendez in immigration court to withdraw the retainer.”
Attorney’s feel confident that the teen will be released because he has never missed an immigration court date, Arroyo said.
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