Teen migrant charged after Florida deputy has fatal heart attack amid struggle

An illegal migrant from Guatemala is facing a manslaughter charge after a Florida sheriff’s deputy suffered a fatal heart attack during a May struggle with the 18-year-old in St. Augustine.

Stakes in the legally complex case escalated this week after Virgilio Aguilar-Mendez retained a civil rights attorney who claims he was wrongfully stopped before the encounter which led to St. Johns County Sergeant Michael Kunovich’s death.

Aguilar-Mendez entered the US illegally through the southern border last year aged 17 and eventually made his way to St. Augustine to work on farms, court papers state.

Kunovich, a 52-year-old veteran officer, first spotted the laborer in the parking lot of a Super 8 motel around 9 p.m. on May 16.