On November 8, 2008, two Hispanic men were attacked by a group of teenagers. One of the men was killed. Marcelo Lucero and Angel Loja were out late that evening when a group of teenagers approached them. The teens circled Lucero and Loja; Loja was able to get away, but Lucero was not so lucky. The group began to hit Lucero, and in defense, he removed his belt and swung it above his head. While trying to protect himself, Lucer hit one of the teens, Jeff Conroy, in the head, which enraged Conroy, leading to Lucero being stabbed, ultimately killing him. Loja, who saw the attack after he escaped, called the police. It took 17 minutes for an ambulance to arrive at the scene; in that time, the group of seven teenagers managed to run away. The police found the group not far from where the crime happened.
Jeff Conroy, who stabbed Lucero, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for manslaughter as a hate crime and gang assault, as well as attempted assault on three other Hispanic individuals. Four of the other teens, Jose Pacheco, Anthony Hartford, Jordan Dasch, and Kevin Shea, were sentenced to 7 years in prison for gang assault in the first degree, attempted assault in the second degree, and conspiracy in the fourth degree. Nicholas Hausch was sentenced to 5 years for gang assault. Chris Overton was sentenced to 6 years for gang assault. Hausch and Overton received lesser sentences as they were not involved in the previous assaults that occurred that night.
The group of teens attacked Lucero and Loja for two main reasons: they felt threatened by the presence of Hispanics in their neighborhood, and because they were bored.
Information regarding this incident was gathered from the book Hunting Season: Immigration and Murder in an All-American Town by Mirta Ojito (2013).
Leave a Reply