Page 7 - ARUBA TODAY

A7
U.S. NEWS Thursday 7 November 2019
Prosecutors charge man with

hate crime in acid attack

By IVAN MORENO
Associated Press
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A
61-year-old white Mil-
waukee man accused of
throwing acid on a His-
panic man's face will be
charged with a hate crime,
increasing the possible sen-
tence he may receive if
convicted, prosecutors an-
nounced Wednesday.
Prosecutors filed one
charge against Clifton
Blackwell — first-degree
reckless injury — but added
the sentencing enhanc-
ers of hate crime and use
of a dangerous weapon.
The two enhancers could
add 10 years in prison if he's
convicted of first-degree
reckless injury, which is pun-
ishable by up to 25 years.
The victim, Mahud Villalaz,
42, said his attacker ap-
proached him near a res-
taurant Friday night and
confronted him about
being parked too close
to a bus stop, according
to charging documents.
Prosecutors said Blackwell
then asked, "Why did you
invade my country?" and
"Why don't you respect my
laws?" This undated photo provided by the Milwaukee County Jail shows Clifton Blackwell.
Villalaz said he moved Associated Press
his car but that Blackwell President Donald Trump. to many people not just in 1990. A Marine official told
continued to berate him, White House spokesman this community but really AP that the branch doesn't
calling him "illegal" and Judd Deere said Monday around the country right have a record matching
telling him to "go back, that the Trump administra- now," he said. Blackwell's name and birth-
go back," followed by an tion has repeatedly con- Blackwell does not yet date.
expletive. Villalaz said he demned racism and vio- have an attorney, accord- State court records show
called Blackwell a racist, lence. ing to court records. Blackwell was convicted
also using an expletive. Vil- Investigators who searched Blackwell's family said he's in a 2006 Rusk County case
lalaz said Blackwell threw Blackwell's home found a military veteran who of false imprisonment and
the acid on him after Vil- among other things four came to Milwaukee to seek pointing a gun at a person
lalaz said "everyone come bottles of sulfuric acid, mu- help for an undetermined in a case where he held
from somewhere first" and riatic acid, and two bottles medical issue. His mother, four hunters at gunpoint
that American Indians had of Kleen-Out drain opener Jacqueline P. Blackwell, of because they were on his
been in the country the lon- that was 100 % lye, accord- California, told the Jour- property.q
gest. ing to the search warrant. nal Sentinel he had sought
Surveillance video from the Before filing the charge, care with the Department
restaurant recorded the at- Milwaukee District Attorney of Veterans Affairs in Mil-
tack, which left Villalaz with John Chisholm said during waukee for post-traumatic
second-degree burns on an interview with Wisconsin stress.
his face. Public Radio that his office "I was comfortable that he
Villalaz is a U.S. citizen who was looking to determine was getting good care with
immigrated from Peru. whether the attack was the VA," she told the news-
The attack on Villalaz motivated "in whole or in paper.
comes at a time when the part" based on the victim's His brother, Arthur Eugene
Anti-Defamation League race. He said prosecutors Blackwell of Evergreen,
says extreme anti-immi- would look "very closely Colorado, told the AP that
grant views have become first at the underlying of- Clifton served nearly four
part of the political main- fenses and then we'll make years in the U.S. Marines
stream in recent years a determination whether and was stationed at the
through sharp rhetoric by the facts support the hate Panama Canal around the
anti-immigration groups crime." time Manuel Noriega was
and politicians, including "But it's obviously a concern captured and removed in