of Anthony. Both of them referred to Christopher Overton as “a kid named Chris,” making it clear he was not a part of their group. Kuvan too took responsibility for the events of that night, saying that it had been he, Anthony, and Nick who had started talking about “looking for people to fight.” He said they had been looking for “beaners to fuck up,” and he readily acknowledged that, later that night, he had been the one who threw the first punch, the punch that made Lucero bleed. But he also said that, after the punch, he had started to walk back toward the parking lot. It was then he had realized that the “Spanish guys” had taken off their belts and that one of them—the one he had “snuffed”—was swinging the belt over his head.
If he had been thinking of leaving, seeing the swinging belt made him change his mind, because Kuvan said he then yelled to the others “to surround the guy and try to control him.” Kuvan also told detectives that he had seen Jeff run toward the guy he had punched, but, like Anthony, he didn’t see the actual stabbing. All he knew was that the fight stopped shortly after that.
“The guy was walking back into the street and he had a lot more blood on him, far more than when I punched him in the mouth,” Kuvan said. “As we walked towards the SUV I thought we might get away, but Chris pointed out a video camera and within seconds a police car rolled up on us.”
Kuvan was candid about his participation in past beatings of Hispanics. “I have been involved in beatings like this before but no one ever used a knife. We would just beat people up.” As Anthonyalso did, Kuvan described the beating of a Hispanic man the Monday before, on Jamaica Avenue. But, unlike Anthony, he said that Jeff had been there as well, along with three other young men who had not been mentioned before. He was clear on one detail: on that occasion, “Anthony, José and I knocked out a Spanish guy.” 16
The “Spanish guy” who was knocked out on Jamaica Avenue was Octavio Cordovo, an immigrant from Mexico who had arrived illegally in the United States only a few months before the attack. He lived in Medford and worked sporadically in construction. Like so many other immigrants in Medford, every morning at dawn he stood at a corner near a 7-Eleven, waiting for someone in a truck to stop and offer him work for a day.
On November 3, 2008, he had worked from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and had then gone home. Sometime later, at about 7:30 p.m., he had left the house to walk about four blocks to a CITGO gas station to buy coffee with a friend named Adrián. Two young men had approached them. He noticed that one was white and the other was black. Cordovo also noticed that other young people were milling around in the park next to the gas station and walking toward them as well. As he passed the two young men, the white one asked if they had any cigarettes.
“We simply told them, ‘We don’t have any,’ ” Cordovo would later testify in court.
What happened next was a blur. The young men pushed Adrián. One—Kuvan or Anthony—hit Cordovo on the shoulder and pushed him hard on the chest. Cordovo heard young girls yelling for the attackers to stop. “No, no, don’t do it!” they said. That’s the last thing he remembers. He was knocked down with a punch to the mouth, not unlike Lucero, and started bleeding, but luckily for him he passed out. Unlike Lucero, he didn’t have the chance to fight back.
In his confession, José did not talk about the attack on Cordovo, but he corroborated his friends’ account of the attackon Loja and Lucero, and he added a new detail. Before Kuvan threw the first punch, “the shorter of the two Spanish guys said he didn’t want no trouble.” The shorter one was Lucero.
José also told police that later, as he saw the cops pulling up next to them, he had taken a small white folding knife from his pocket and thrown it in a garbage can. He said that Jeff had
If he had been thinking of leaving, seeing the swinging belt made him change his mind, because Kuvan said he then yelled to the others “to surround the guy and try to control him.” Kuvan also told detectives that he had seen Jeff run toward the guy he had punched, but, like Anthony, he didn’t see the actual stabbing. All he knew was that the fight stopped shortly after that.
“The guy was walking back into the street and he had a lot more blood on him, far more than when I punched him in the mouth,” Kuvan said. “As we walked towards the SUV I thought we might get away, but Chris pointed out a video camera and within seconds a police car rolled up on us.”
Kuvan was candid about his participation in past beatings of Hispanics. “I have been involved in beatings like this before but no one ever used a knife. We would just beat people up.” As Anthonyalso did, Kuvan described the beating of a Hispanic man the Monday before, on Jamaica Avenue. But, unlike Anthony, he said that Jeff had been there as well, along with three other young men who had not been mentioned before. He was clear on one detail: on that occasion, “Anthony, José and I knocked out a Spanish guy.” 16
The “Spanish guy” who was knocked out on Jamaica Avenue was Octavio Cordovo, an immigrant from Mexico who had arrived illegally in the United States only a few months before the attack. He lived in Medford and worked sporadically in construction. Like so many other immigrants in Medford, every morning at dawn he stood at a corner near a 7-Eleven, waiting for someone in a truck to stop and offer him work for a day.
On November 3, 2008, he had worked from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and had then gone home. Sometime later, at about 7:30 p.m., he had left the house to walk about four blocks to a CITGO gas station to buy coffee with a friend named Adrián. Two young men had approached them. He noticed that one was white and the other was black. Cordovo also noticed that other young people were milling around in the park next to the gas station and walking toward them as well. As he passed the two young men, the white one asked if they had any cigarettes.
“We simply told them, ‘We don’t have any,’ ” Cordovo would later testify in court.
What happened next was a blur. The young men pushed Adrián. One—Kuvan or Anthony—hit Cordovo on the shoulder and pushed him hard on the chest. Cordovo heard young girls yelling for the attackers to stop. “No, no, don’t do it!” they said. That’s the last thing he remembers. He was knocked down with a punch to the mouth, not unlike Lucero, and started bleeding, but luckily for him he passed out. Unlike Lucero, he didn’t have the chance to fight back.
In his confession, José did not talk about the attack on Cordovo, but he corroborated his friends’ account of the attackon Loja and Lucero, and he added a new detail. Before Kuvan threw the first punch, “the shorter of the two Spanish guys said he didn’t want no trouble.” The shorter one was Lucero.
José also told police that later, as he saw the cops pulling up next to them, he had taken a small white folding knife from his pocket and thrown it in a garbage can. He said that Jeff had
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