Virgilio Aguilar-Mendez is released from custody. | News4Jax
Published on March 18, 2024 at 12:10 pm
The 19-year-old migrant farm worker from Guatemala whose charges were dropped in connection with the death of a St. Johns County sheriff’s deputy has been released from custody.
Virgilio Aguilar-Mendez was released from federal custody in Baker County last week.
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His lawyer, Phillip Arroyo, told News4Jax that Aguilar-Mendez has been released to his father’s family in Central Florida.
“Today is a beautiful day,” Arroyo said. “I think today is the embodiment of what our Constitution stands for. We don’t live in a perfect country, but the powers that our Constitution provide at the end of the day pulled through,”
Aguilar-Mendez faced charges of aggravated manslaughter and resisting arrest after an encounter with St. Johns Sgt. Michael Kunovich, who died of a heart attack shortly after the confrontation.
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The charges against Aguilar-Mendez were dropped March 1 after the State Attorney’s Office said his case was complicated by his inability to comprehend English, his cultural background and other significant issues.
Aguilar-Mendez, 19, had been ruled 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.
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.
The case sparked a national backlash over what his attorneys called racial profiling. An online petition calling for his release and dismissal of charges collected nearly 600,000 signatures.
Lead image: Virgilio Aguilar-Mendez is released from custody. | News4Jax
