Marysville Man Gets 7 Years In Racially Motivated Attack
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A Northern California man has been sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison for beating a white man and a black woman in what prosecutors say was a racially motivated attack.
Billy James Hammett of Marysville was one of three men who pleaded guilty to the 2011 attack at a convenience store in Marysville, 40 miles north of Sacramento.
Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that 28-year-old Perry Sylvester Jackson and 33-year-old Anthony Merrell Tyler are awaiting sentencing. They face up to 10 years in prison for violating the federal hate crimes law.
Prosecutors say Hammett, who is 30, kicked the woman in the chest, while Jackson punched the man and Tyler smashed their vehicle's windshield with a crowbar.
Prosecutors say all three have white supremacist tattoos, and Hammett has a 2006 conviction for assaulting a 72-year-old black man.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.