The three teenagers accused of killing Mexican immigrant Luis Eduardo Ramírez will be tried as adults on ethnic intimidation and aggravated assault charges, and two of them will face trial on a third-degree murder count, a judge ordered after hearing key testimony from a defendant’s friend who witnessed the beating.

District Judge Anthony Kilker ruled there was enough evidence to try Colin Walsh, 17, and Brandon Piekarsky, 16, on counts of third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation.

Another teen, Derrick Donchack, 18, will be tried on ethnic intimidation, aggravated assault and other counts.

In Pennsylvania, third-degree murder is punishable with up to 40 years in prison, while aggravated assault has a maximum sentence of 20 years.

The motions to move the charges to juvenile court were withdrawn, the Schuylkill County District Attorney’s office said.

17-year-old Benjamin Lawson’s testimony against his friends was key at the hearing.

The teenager said that Walsh gave Ramirez a sucker punch while the latter struggled with Donchak.

“Ramírez fell on his back. His head hit the floor hard and he didn’t get up, he didn’t move, he didn’t say anything,” Lawson said. “It seemed he was done fighting.”

It was then that Ramírez got kicked on his head’s left side, right at the temporal bone, the teenager said about what happened the night of July 12.

The Mexican immigrant died two days later in a hospital, and the autopsy showed that the cause of death was “a blunt force to the head.”

After the fight, the adolescents gathered at Donchak’s house where they bragged about the beating, Lawson recounted before the judge.

“Brandon said he had given that man a good blow,” he said.

“Later Donchak went to get his shotgun because he said he had to be ready in case Ramirez’ friends came looking for him,” he said.

Lawson said also that the following day he met with the defendants at Piekarski’s home to make up a version “that we would tell if anyone interviewed us.”

“Donchak said ‘we’re screwed. If they ask us we’ll say there was no kicking, no one made any racist comments’, but that story wasn’t true,” Lawson said.

While the young man answered questions, his friends, the three defendants, looked at him, and Donchak, smart dressed, shook his head and yawned. His other two friends remained still, wearing their khaki jump suits, their pale faces showing worry.

Lawson’s recount included the hours prior to the incident, when he and the other teenagers gathered to drink malt liquor in the woods.

And that was precisely a point the defense attorneys tried to seized on during cross examination, arguing that Lawson was “heavily intoxicated” that night to render a fair account of what happened.

“The prosecution placed its whole case for murder on a 17-year-old who had consumed 80 ounces of malt liquor, who had a view from a darkened park across a darkened roadway. Is that it? We're going to hang him on that?," " Frederick Fanelli, Piekarsky's lawyer, said in his closing argument.

Filled with tension, the hearing was stopped at least twice due to approximately 50 protesters chanting outside the county court building and who traveled to Pottsville, Pa., from Chicago, New York and Pittsburgh to ask for justice to be made in Ramirez’ case.

Along with Fanelly, attorneys Jeffrey Markosky and Roger Laguna, represented Derrick Donchak and Colin Walsh, respectively.

Ramírez’ fiancée, Crystal Dillman, also took the stand and sobbing told the judge how she had found him “lying on the ground, foaming at the mouth.”