ST JOHNS, Fla. — The video attached to this story is from a previous, related report.
The attorney for Vergilio Aguilar Mendez, an indigenous Guatemalan teen who is charged with manslaughter after a St. Johns County sergeant's death, has filed a new motion asking that the case be dropped. Mendez is charged with manslaughter in the death of Sgt. Michael Kunovich, who died of an irregular heartbeat after he engaged in a struggle with Mendez. He had attempted to question Mendez -- who does not speak English -- for being "suspicious."
The filing says that two other officers who were on scene that day testified they do not believe Mendez caused Kunovich's death.
A medical examiner's report ruled that he died of a heart attack, but "emotional stress" from the struggle with Mendez could have contributed.
This is a claim that one of his attorneys, Phillip Arroyo, refutes. "For the state to prove this beyond every reasonable doubt, they have to establish that Mr. Aguilar knew that Officer Kunovich had a heart condition, which I don't know how they're going to prove, unless they're going to try to argue that our client has x-ray vision," he told First Coast News on Jan. 10.
On the day of Mendez's arrest, Kunovich collapsed after Mendez was placed in handcuffs by another officer. It was revealed Mendez had been holding a knife -- however, this was discovered after he was handcuffed by another officer, and Kunovich was no longer engaging. His legal team says that the knife was for cutting melons at Mendez's job.
Officers attempted to administer Narcan to Kunovich and he was taken to the hospital, where he died.
In a new motion filed Jan. 29, Assistant Public Defender Rosemarie Peoples, who is also working on the case, says there is not enough evidence to charge Mendez with manslaughter. She cites previous similar cases, noting that charges were dropped for those defendants.
Mendez's case has temporarily stalled, because he does not speak English or Spanish, and does not understand the American legal system. He was ruled "incompetent" Dec. 29 and ordered to participate in competency training -- which he will have to receive in jail. The filing says it is impossible to know if Mendez will benefit from competency training. Peoples argues that if Mendez has truly been ruled unfit to participate in legal proceedings, he cannot even consent to the judge's order for training.
The filing says that SJCSO Officer Higgins, who was at the scene, "did not foresee the events of the arrest resulting in Sgt. Kunovich's heart attack." Officer Montgomery, another officer at the scene, made the same observation during his deposition.
"In this case, an Sgt. Kunovich’s death by natural causes (heart attack) after an arrest was not a reasonably foreseeable consequence of any action taken by Mr. Aguilar Mendez; therefore the manslaughter charge against him must be dismissed due to lack of legal causation," Peoples wrote in the filing.
Arroyo says that if Mendez is not released, his legal team will be filing a federal lawsuit claiming violation of Mendez's constitutional rights.
"Mr. Virgilio was a victim of police brutality. He was a victim of racial profiling. He was a victim of violation of his fourth, fifth, and sixth amendment constitutional rights," he said. "Those who are responsible for this abuse will be held accountable."
A petition to release him has garnered 566,206 signatures.