Long Island teen arraigned in bias stabbing death (AP)

[Yahoo! News]

AP - A 17-year-old student was ordered held without bail Monday on hate crime charges in the stabbing of an Ecuadorean immigrant during a marauding spree with six high school friends.

A judge rejected Jeffrey Conroy's plea for bail on charges that include second-degree murder as a hate crime, manslaughter and gang assault in the Nov. 8 killing of Marcelo Lucero.

Conroy's lawyer, William Keahon, denied that his client — who is white — is a racist.

"It doesn't exist or these people wouldn't be here to support him," Keahon said, gesturing to relatives, as well as friends of different ethnic backgrounds, in the courtroom.

Prosecutor Megan O'Donnell told state Supreme Court Justice Robert Doyle that Conroy took a knife out of his boxer shorts and handed it over to police shortly after the killing.

Without comment, state Supreme Court Justice Robert Doyle refused to allow Conroy's release on $100,000 bail and ordered him back to jail.

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