All-white jury is selected in hate crime trial in Pa. immigrant beating death

All-white jury is selected in hate crime trial in Pa. immigrant beating death - Los Angeles Times

POTTSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — An all-white jury was seated Wednesday in the trial of two northeastern Pennsylvania teenagers charged in the fatal beating of an illegal immigrant from Mexico.

Schuylkill County prosecutors allege the attack on Luis Ramirez, 25, was racially motivated. Witnesses have said the victim was sucker-punched and kicked in the head during a late-night, epithet-filled melee.

Prosecutors have charged Brandon Piekarsky, 17, of Shenandoah, with third-degree murder. He and Derrick Donchak, 19, also of Shenandoah, were charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and ethnic intimidation.

Police have said that a third teen, Colin Walsh, 17, punched Ramirez in the face, and that Piekarsky kicked him in the head as he lay unconscious in the street.

Walsh has entered a plea in federal court, but documents in the case have been sealed....