A Guatemalan migrant who spent 10 months in custody accused of killing a longtime Florida police officer has been released.
Virgilio Aguilar Mendez, 19, was arrested in May 2023 after he was approached by officers and suffered a fatal heart attack in the middle of a struggle to detain him.
Sgt. Michael Kunovich, a 25-year-old officer at St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office in St. Augustine, northeast FL, cooled off during the chaos.
The 7th District Attorney’s Office deemed farmworker Aguilar Mendez “incompetent” to stand trial, in part because of the language barrier, so the charges against him were dismissed.
It comes as a “migrant crime wave” sweeps the country thanks to hundreds of thousands of people illegally crossing the border each month.
A Guatemalan migrant who spent eight months in custody accused of killing a veteran Florida police officer has been released
Virgilio Aguilar Mendez (pictured), 19, was arrested in May 2023 after he was approached by officers and suffered a fatal heart attack amid a struggle to detain him
Sgt. Michael Kunovich (pictured), an officer of 25 years with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office in St. Augustine, northeast FL, chilled during the chaos
Aguilar Mendez’s attorney, Phillip Arroyo, has released a video of him walking free, with the teenager nodding and smiling as they stroll out of the police facility together.
“Recent expert testimony about the defendant’s inability to understand the English language, his cultural background and concerns about his intellectual capacity have raised significant issues to consider in the case,” the attorney general’s office said of his release.
“Furthermore, based on the court’s recent determination that the defendant is incompetent to proceed on the basis of this expert witness, it is appropriate to dismiss the charges. Arrest and serving time is sufficient.’
Aguilar Mendez was arrested last May after Sgt Kunovich approached him about “suspicious behaviour”, according to an arrest warrant.
The Guatemalan national, who does not speak English, tried to walk away from the officer and a struggle ensued.
Bodycam footage of the arrest shows him interacting with the officer and appearing to tell him he didn’t understand before slowly walking away.
The officers throw him to the ground, place him in a chokehold and repeatedly use a taser on him.
Arroyo told ABC News that minutes after the incident, Sgt. Kunovich suffered a heart attack and died.
The 7th District Attorney’s Office deemed farmworker Aguilar Mendez “incompetent” to stand trial in part because of the language barrier, so charges against him were dismissed
Aguilar Mendez’s lawyer Phillip Arroyo has released a video of him walking free, with the teenager nodding and smiling as they stroll out of police custody together
Aguilar Mendez was arrested last May after Sgt Kunovich approached him about “suspicious behavior,” according to an arrest warrant
The Guatemalan national, who does not speak English, tried to walk away from the officer and a struggle ensued
His autopsy report concluded that he died of natural causes as he suffered from a serious heart condition that triggered the heart attack.
The disease may have been caused by heart and lung deterioration he had due to smoking.
DailyMail.com has contacted Arroyo for more details on why he was contacted by police and what will happen to him going forward.
About 2,045,838 people illegally crossed the southern border into the United States last year, according to CBP figures.
These numbers are expected to swell this year – while the northern border with Canada is also experiencing an unprecedented crisis.
Illegal crossings from Canada to the United States rose 500 percent to 10,021 last year compared to 2022.