FAYETTEVILLE -- A Springdale teen convicted last week of fatally shooting one person and wounding two others pleaded guilty Tuesday afternoon to one count of misdemeanor marijuana possession.
Hector Ramos, 19, was sentenced to one year of probation, fined $1,000 and ordered to pay associated court costs and fees.
Prosecutors said police found marijuana in Ramos' home while serving a search warrant as part of the shooting investigation. The charge was severed from last week's trial.
Ramos remains in custody at the Washington County Juvenile Detention Center under a federal immigration hold filed by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ramos has been in the juvenile jail for more than a year.
Paul Waddell, an attorney for Ramos, said Tuesday the hold is for 48 hours, which should have started running about 2 p.m. Tuesday. Waddell said at the end of the 48 hours he will demand Ramos' release if federal immigration officials haven't taken him into custody to begin removal proceedings.
Waddell said Ramos was brought to the United States as a young child by his parents and was eligible to petition to remain in the country under federal immigration rules until last week's felony conviction.
Waddell said if immigration officials take Ramos into custody, he'll likely be taken to a detention center in Oakdale, La., for further proceedings, which could take six months to several years.
Bryan Cox, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in New Orleans, confirmed Monday the agency has a hold on Ramos.
"If he was convicted of a felony, that in and of itself falls into the highest category we have for individuals who are subject to removal," Cox said.
Ramos was charged with first-degree murder in the death of 18-year-old Fabian Rodriguez and two counts of first-degree battery for the shootings of Savanna Smith, 22, and Juan Araujo, 15, in the early morning hours of March 13, 2015.
After three hours of deliberation, the jury returned with guilty verdicts on both first-degree battery counts but opted to find Ramos guilty of the lesser charge of negligent homicide rather than a murder charge.
Negligent homicide is a misdemeanor, and the battery charges are both felonies. He was sentenced to a suspended jail term and probation. Circuit Judge Joanna Taylor ran the sentences concurrently.
Ramos, 17 at the time of the crime, was charged as an adult. Rodriguez and Araujo went to Ramos' home with a machete and a 4-foot iron pipe. They threatened him and yelled at him to come outside. Ramos shot through his bedroom window, fatally striking Rodriguez. He wounded Araujo as he fled and Smith as she sat in a car.
NW News on 05/11/2016