No word yet from the ACLU or LaRaza. — Ed.
A Hispanic Immokalee farm worker charged with stabbing a teenagefarm worker to death early Saturday after an argument over speakingEnglish was advised of his rights Sunday at his first appearancehearing.
Mauricio Escalante, 33, who has no permanent address, pleaded notguilty to second-degree murder, not premeditated, at his hearing beforeCircuit Judge Christine Greider, a Hendry Circuit judge who set bond at$500,000.
Escalante, who will be arraigned Jan. 11, faces life in prison onthe first-degree felony charge involving the death of 17-year-oldCharlie Guzman. No further information was immediately available aboutGuzman, a juvenile.
[snip]
Between 3 a.m. and 3:34 a.m., the victim and his friends gathered at alaundry area at the farmworker tenant apartments on Colorado Avenue.There already were three others there and the two groups began talkinguntil a dispute erupted involving the victim’s group speaking English,not Spanish.
