Teen in Pa. immigrant death gets 55 months in prison

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania teenager who testified against two others convicted of federal charges in the fatal beating of an illegal immigrant will spend 55 months in prison.

Colin Walsh, 19, was ordered today to report to federal prison on May 6. Outside the federal courthouse in Wilkes-Barre, Walsh told the Pottsville Republican and Herald he would become “a better person.”

Walsh pleaded guilty to a civil rights violation in the 2008 beating death 25-year-old Luis Ramirez in Shenandoah. He also testified against two other teens at a pair of trials.

Brandon Piekarsky and Derrick Donchak were acquitted of the most serious state charges against them by an all-white jury before being convicted of civil rights violations in a federal trial. Both were sentenced to nine years in prison.