A Long Island teen was convicted of manslaughter as a hate crime Monday in the stabbing death of an Ecuadoran immigrant - a case that exposed a growing bias against Hispanics in Suffolk County.
Jeffrey Conroy, a 19-year-old high school athlete at Patchogue-Medford High School faces eight to 25 years in prison for killing
Marcelo Lucero in November 2008.
"We believe it's a fair verdict based upon the evidence," said District Attorney Thomas Spota.
Conroy was one of seven teens implicated in Lucero's death. Four other defendants have pleaded guilty to hate crime-related charges and two are still awaiting trial.
Prosecutors hit Conroy with the most serious charges because they said he was the one who inflicted the fatal wound to the chest.
Conroy just shook his head when the verdict was announced in the packed courtroom. His brother and sister left the courthouse in tears.
Lucero's brother Joselo told The Associated Press, "The hunting season is over, at least for now."
Lucero, 37, was walking with a friend near the Patchogue train station around midnight when they were confronted by the seven teens. Prosecutors said they were looking for targets, and alluded to "beaner-hopping" or "Mexican hopping" in the stabbing.
The case, which was followed closely by the Ecuadoran media, shined a painful light on the growing number of hate crimes in Long Island, where the Latino population has doubled to 13% since 1990.
"What concerns us in the United States are crimes of hatred and xenophobia, obviously linked to racism," Ecuador's ambassador in Washington, Luis Gallegos, told The Associated Press. "And we believe that in the trial of Mr. Lucero, there must be a sentence of the greatest severity so that this kind of crime is not repeated."
Conroy is scheduled to be sentenced on May 26.
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