He is being held for two months awaiting trial. This is a really sad story that has been tearing me up. Kid had his whole life ahead of him. Here is the AP story posted at ESPN.com. And here is the Giants official statement, though it really amounts to blah blah blah at this point.
He signed a contract, with $2.1 million signing bonus back in August 2006, when he was 16. This is the youngest age at which international prospects can sign. He is one of many "bonus babies" to come out of the Dominican Republic. The Giants and their fans had high hopes for him at his signing, and he has progressed nicely through the minor leagues. He was seen as a highly ranked prospect last year as well at single A Augusta Green Jackets of the South Atlantic League.
I first heard about this story through Patrick Clark, at beyond the boxscore. Andrew Baggerly has reactions from teammates at a mercurynews.com article. Garrett Broshuis was also a minor league teammate of Villalona and posted some thoughts on his blog, which I follow. Here is the post.
The AP article will give you the basics, but the Dominican dailies have published a few additional articles. Villalona has only been quoted as saying he is "innocent," in this article published by the Listin Diario. There is a string of articles published at listindiario.com. This one has a picture of the nightclub, where the murder took place (ALLEGEDLY), and the prosecutor says that they have sufficient evidence against him and that their will not be any corruption. In another article, Villalona´s lawyer says that all the evidence they have gathered points to the innocence of his client, and that the media has sensationalized the event and they are to blame. Sound like a typical trial of any kind when good lawyers are involved?
Lastly, there are two articles published at DominicanToday.com, the only English language newspaper in the country. The first one says that he has been charged. The second one says that he will be in jail 2 months awaiting trial, could face up to 20 years, AND (get this) that the scuffle may have begun over a seat.
There are a number of things that could have prevented this. The Dominican Baseball Guy mentions in an earlier post that violence and handguns are not uncommon in this country. This may be an explanation for a middling prospect or your average Dominican. But for a prospect such as this, he could have bought the bar, much less the seat. He could have easily rented out the bar for the night. He could have asked the owner of the bar to give him the seat, and the Dominican Baseball Guy is pretty sure the owner would oblige someone as famous in La Romana as Villalona. Where is his support system? Why did he not recieve more education and/or get steered away from dangerous situations such as this? This is all needless to say after the fact, and this issue has been breached numerous times with young athletes in all sports. The Dominican Baseball Guy will not attempt to offer a solution in a simple blog post.
Notice the Dominican Baseball Guy says alleged murder above. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty in the eyes of the Dominican Baseball Guy. The legal process will run it's course and will determine whether Angel Villalona will continue playing a kids game, or be locked up with hardened criminals.
No comments:
Post a Comment