Boy admits to stabbing teenager to death amid brawl at Lake Worth Beach birthday party
WEST PALM BEACH — A boy pleaded guilty to murder Thursday for stabbing an older teen to death at a birthday party more than one year earlier. He stood in the courtroom where adults normally do — wore the red jumpsuit that distinguishes child offenders from grownup ones — but was charged as an adult all the same.
Manuel Marcos Cardona risked being sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder had he fought the charge at trial and lost. Instead, he made a deal with prosecutors that cemented his conviction but kept the penalty under two decades.
"Ordinarily, this would not be the kind of plea that would be agreed upon," Assistant State Attorney Francine Edwards told Circuit Judge Cymonie Rowe. Cardona's youth, she said, and the circumstances of the crime prompted her to extend the offer anyway.
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Cardona's family and that of his victim, 19-year-old Andres Perez-Alvarado, sat on opposite sides of the courtroom Thursday. They listened with the help of a Spanish interpreter as Edwards detailed the attack.
A fight broke out between two adults during a 5-year-old child's birthday party at a Lake Worth Beach home on June 18, 2022, she said. Perez-Alvarado stepped in to break it up. Other partygoers surrounded him, drawn to the dispute.
One opened a folding knife and stabbed Perez-Alvarado five times. The crowd dispersed, and the teen collapsed. First responders drove him to St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where he died the following day.
Deputies with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office did not arrest anyone at the party and identified 14-year-old Cardona as a suspect several days later, with witnesses' help. Court records indicate that he had traveled to North Carolina with his family by then and was extradited to Florida on Aug. 4, 2022.
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Cardona, now 15, remained without bond in the juvenile wing of the Palm Beach County Jail. Though minors are typically handled within the juvenile justice system, those charged with murder face the same legal proceedings and potential penalties as an adult would.
According to his court-appointed lawyer, Cardona's DNA was not found on the knife that killed Perez-Alvarado. Defense attorney Gerry Salerno argued in pretrial motions that prosecutors' evidence against Cardona — statements from multiple witnesses who identified him as the assailant — was circumstantial.
The judge disagreed. She sentenced Cardona to 15 years in prison Thursday, with credit for the 18 months he has spent in jail since his arrest. When she asked Cardona if he knew of evidence that could absolve him, the teen indicated that he did. When Rowe pressed him further, he said he didn't know.
Rowe paused the hearing several times to reprimand Cardona's mother and threaten to have her removed from the courtroom for speaking aloud throughout the proceeding. Her son will have spent half his life incarcerated by the time his prison sentence ends.
Hannah Phillips covers criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism and subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida teen admits to stabbing man to death amid birthday party brawl
