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Guilty Plea in L.I. Hate Crime
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Almost one year ago, seven Long Island teenagers were arrested for allegedly playing a sport.
Instead of football or basketball, their preferred sport was "Mexican hunting." The group is also said to have called the warped version of the sport "beaner jumping," a reference to the well-known Mexican dish of rice and beans.
Their victim was Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorean immigrant. The crime horrified people in the Long Island area, as the crime was extremely vicious. This case was the deadliest in a series of anti-immigrant attacks to occur in Suffolk County, where there has been a steadily growing immigrant population.
One of the young men involved in the attack has now pleaded guilty to the crime. Nicholas Hausch, 18, pleaded guilty in Suffolk County Court to the gang assault and a hate crime.
Hausch described how he and his friends had participated in three attacks last year, including the murder of Lucero. The teenagers, according to Hausch, chased their victims, and yelled ethnic slurs at them.
Hausch is the first of the boys to plead guilty. He has agreed to testify against the six remaining defendants. He stated he knew that the group would not get away with the fatal attack on Lucero.
One of the other defendants, Jeffrey Conroy, is accused of stabbing Lucero before running from the scene. Hausch was, his lawyer claims, under the influence of the more popular boys, such as Conroy at the time and only went along with the attack in order to fit in.
Lucero will be remembered by family and friends at a candlelight vigil on November 7, 2009.
Aside from Conroy and Hausch, the five other men charged with taking part in the crime are: Jordan Dasch, of Medford; Anthony Hartford, of Medford; Christopher Overton, of East Patchogue; Jose Pacheco of East Patchogue, and Kevin Shea, of Medford.
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