White Couple Sentenced For Racially-Motivated Attack On Black Man At Monterey Bowling Alley
MONTEREY (CBS SF) -- A White couple from Seaside was sentenced Wednesday for breaking a Black man's jaw at a Monterey bowling alley in 2018 in an attack the victim claimed was racially-motivated.
Monterey County Superior Court Judge Andrew Liu sentenced Noah Boewer, 49, to six years in prison after a jury found him guilty of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and confirmed a special allegation that he personally inflicted great bodily injury on the victim. The charge is a violent felony and subject to California's Three Strikes law.
Tricia Boewer, 38, was found guilty of misdemeanor battery and sentenced to 60 days in county jail and one year of probation. The couple had also been charged with a hate crime but were found not guilty.
According to the office of Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni, the Boewers had gone to Monterey Lanes to go bowling on July 6, 2018.
The victim, identified in published reports as 62-year-old Air Force veteran Dirrick Williams, was at the bowling alley to pick up registration forms for a charity fundraiser event. He was attempting to exit and said, "excuse me" to the couple.
"Ms. Bower proceeded to confront the victim, yelling racial slurs. Mr. Boewer threw a punch at the victim, who was able to block the blow," the District Attorney's Office said. "Ms. Boewer jumped on the victim's back and Mr. Boewer punched the victim on the left side of his face. This unprovoked punch caused seven fractures to the left side of the victim's face, to include a broken jaw."
The Cedar St. Times of Pacific Grove reported a bartender at the bowling alley had been serving the couple before the incident and said Boewer had confronted two East Asian men with a racial slur and threatened them inside the bar.
According to the Monterey County Weekly, during the trial Williams was asked why he didn't just walk away from the couple's racist taunts.
Williams paused and in a voice choked with emotion, answered, "My name isn't nigger," the Weekly reported.
"I don't have to walk away. My grandfather had to walk away, my father had to walk away. My brothers had to walk away," he said. "My mother named me Dirrick Williams, not nigger."
Williams addressed the court Wednesday during the sentencing hearing, describing "the long-term physical and emotional effects that this racially motivated attack has had on his life," the District Attorney's Office said.
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