Earlier (2018): Mexican Illegal Freed By Immigration Judge Attacks Sailors On Fishing Boat, Killing One
Here's the AP's story of a 2018 murder. I've numbered the paragraphs:
Fishing crew member pleads guilty to murder in attack off NantucketBy Associated Press,March 9, 2022
- BOSTON (AP) — A member of a fishing boat crew pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing a fellow crew member and attacking others with a knife and hammer while at sea in 2018, federal prosecutors said.
- Franklin Freddy Meave Vazquez, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of assault with a dangerous weapon. Sentencing is scheduled for June 28.
- The attack occurred Sept. 23, 2018, on the Virginia-based fishing vessel, The Captain Billy Haver, as it was sailing about 55 miles off the coast of Nantucket with seven crew members aboard, including Vazquez and the three victims.
- Inside the ship’s shucking house, Vazquez used a hammer to strike his first victim in the head, knocking the victim unconsciousness, investigators said.
- He then walked out onto the deck and stabbed a second victim multiple times with a long fillet knife.
- A third victim who climbed up from the ice hold was struck in the head by Vazquez with a hammer and fell back down the ladder, bleeding from his head.
- Vazquez then struggled with the vessel captain before climbing to the top of the rigging mast.
- The captain placed a call on the distress channel, and the German cruise ship Mein Schiff 6 responded, taking two injured fishermen on board, prosecutors said. The crew member with stab wounds was pronounced dead by the ship’s doctor.
- Vazquez remained at the top of the mast until the Coast Guard arrived that evening and took him into custody.
- The victim stabbed by Vazquez died. The other two victims survived.
- Vazquez is a Mexican citizen and had been living in the U.S. illegally, investigators said.
- Vazquez faces a a [sic] sentence of up to life in prison for the charge of second-degree murder. The charge of attempted murder provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, while the charge of assault with a dangerous weapon provides for a sentence of up to 10 years.
- Vazquez will be subject to deportation proceedings after finishing any sentence imposed.
Since it took place offshore, it's in the "special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the U.S," so there's a press release headed Virginia Man Pleads Guilty to Murder Aboard Commercial Scalloping Boat.
I really hate that—these are the U.S. Federal authorities, who acknowledge in the press release that Vasquez is an illegal from Mexico who they're going to try to deport if he ever gets out of jail, but they call him a "Virginia Man" in the headline.
If you want actual reportage on what happened, you need to go to this 2018 Daily Mail article: 'We have a man gone crazy on the boat!' Chilling mayday call reveals fishing captain's terror after illegal immigrant crewman 'murdered shipmate with a hammer and attacked two others' off Nantucket.