Trial For Second Juvenile Begins In Death Of Migrant Worker

The second of two 12-yearold boys accused of fatally shooting a migrant worker last summer goes on trial today.

Manuel Sanchez was charged with firstdegree murder in the Aug. 20 slaying of Emilio Pruneda, who was shot 18 times near his makeshift campsite on the banks of the Columbia River.

His co-defendant, John Duncan, also 12, was found guilty of the same change Monday. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 20. Convicted as a juvenile, Duncan could be sent to a detention center until he is 21.

Sanchez also will be tried as a juvenile before Judge John Bridges in Chelan County Juvenile Court.

And the same witnesses are testifying at both trials, Deputy Prosecutor Gordon Edgar said.

“It’ll be a little more difficult” to get a firstdegree murder conviction against Sanchez, Edgar said. “Manuel’s statement to police is not as detailed as John Duncan’s was. There’s less information there which gives us insight into what Manuel was thinking at the time.”

Prosecutors are not allowed to use Duncan’s statement as evidence at Sanchez’s trial, and Duncan has indicated he will refuse to testify against his friend, Edgar said.

“That means we have to independently establish John’s words,” Edgar said.

Duncan told police immediately after the shooting that he and Sanchez became angry when Pruneda yelled at them and threw three or four rocks in their direction. One of the rocks struck Sanchez, whom Duncan described as “my best and only friend.”

“Manuel was mad and said, ‘I’m going to shoot this guy,”’ Duncan said in his statement. Pruneda was shot 18 times.

Sanchez’s defense attorney, Tom Caballero, did not return telephone messages left Tuesday at his office. But during Duncan’s trial, Caballero told a Wenatchee World reporter that he would use Sanchez’s injury as the basis for a claim that the boy acted in self-defense.

Sanchez received four stitches for a cut on his chin.