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Sep. 06, 2006
Four friends allegedly beat a homeless man to death
By Madeline Baro Diaz
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

MIAMI - Angry over a homeless man's catcall, four friends went on a
"feeding frenzy," police said, beating the elderly man to death with a
metal chair, a steel rebar, a rock and a wooden stick.

Two men accused in Saturday's attack are the sons of Christian
clergymen. All four have been charged with second degree murder.

"This was pure bloodlust," said Miami police spokesman Lt. Bill
Schwartz. "There was no reason for this."

According to a police report, the attack was sparked when Janice
Guillen, 18, went to her car to get cigarettes. Guillen told police
she heard Jose Perez, 67, who was in the building across the street,
toss out a pickup line "she felt was nasty," the report said. She told
police she confronted Perez and punched him in the face.

Perez allegedly hit her back, prompting Magdiel Wingfield, 28, Kevin
Stone, 27, and Jason Cardenas, 19, to run downstairs from Guillen's
Little Havana apartment. The four of them allegedly jumped Perez,
punching and kicking him and hitting him with the chair, the rebar and
the other objects. At one point they pushed Perez through a glass
door, shattering it, the police report said.

Perez was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he died from his
injuries.

Wingfield and Cardenas' fathers are clergymen with the Soldiers of the
Cross church based in Little Havana. Neither could be reached for
comment on Wednesday.

Earlier this year, Guillen was arrested on a misdemeanor theft charge,
according to court records. Wingfield was arrested for misdemeanor
battery in 2005, but charges were dropped earlier this year. In 1998,
he was also arrested for malicious destruction of property and entered
a pretrial diversion program.

Police are trying to locate Perez's relatives. He apparently lived in
the hallway of the building where he was killed and did odd jobs for
people in the neighborhood, Schwartz said.

"He seemed to be a harmless guy," Schwartz said. "Granted, he might
not have been the most gentle or the most sophisticated of people, but
he certainly did not deserve this type of torturous end to his life."

The brutal beating is part of a nationwide trend of increased violence
against the homeless, said homeless advocate Sean Cononie.

Cononie pointed to the case of three teens awaiting trial in the
beating death last January of a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., homeless man.
William "Billy" Ammons, 18, Thomas Daugherty, 17, and Brian Hooks, 18,
are also facing two counts each of attempted murder for allegedly
beating two other homeless men. Across the country, homeless people
have been set on fire, decapitated and killed in other gruesome ways,
Cononie said.

"These crimes toward the homeless are always vicious," he said. "I
guess people don't put a value on homeless people's lives."

On the contrary. If they don't go hitting and insulting women, they might
live a few extra years. Such a valuable resource for our neighborhoods,
proving once again that America is compassionate enough to leave them in
squalor without usually murdering them.

On the contrary. If they don't go hitting and insulting women, they might
live a few extra years. Such a valuable resource for our neighborhoods,
proving once again that America is compassionate enough to leave them in
squalor without usually murdering them.