Pot farmer gets life for killing migrant worker who was unhappy with lack of pay, working conditions

A northern California marijuana farmer this week was sentenced to life in prison with an additional 35 years for murdering a Guatemalan migrant worker and attempting to kill another one because the workers threatened to quit over poor working conditions, Will Houston reports for the Eureka Times-Standard. Mikal Wilde was found guilty of premeditated first-degree murder for shooting one worker three times then tracking him down to kill him with a fourth shot. Another worker, who survived, was shot twice. The third worker escaped unharmed. (U.S. Beacon map: The murder was in Kneeland, Calif.)

Federal prosecutors said Wilde, who since 2010 has run an 800-acre, 1,500-plant operation, didn't pay his workers because he held a “belief that [the immigrant workers] were expendable, not in a position to complain," Tim Devaney reports for The Hill. Prosecutors said “The defendant preyed on their status and viewed them as free labor that could not stand up to him.” (Read more)