A man who was sentenced for a “vicious” and “brutal” attack against a black man had been bragging the night of the assault about "burning crosses" and showed off his swastika tattoo to his victim.
Randy Metcalf, who was ordered to spend 10 years behind bars this week, beat up Lamarr Sandridge until he was unconscious and bleeding on the ground, repeatedly stomping on his head until the bar owner intervened.
The 40-year-old then reportedly came back into the bar to kick his head again.
The attack started after Sandridge had stepped in to protect a woman who had gotten into a fight with Metcalf.
Sandridge had been taunted for several hours that night, according to the Justice Department, by Metcalf and his group of white school friends, as reported by the Telegraph Herald.
Metcalf boasted to the bar owner that he had taken part in "cross burnings" and said that he "hated black people", showing off a swastika tattoo on his abdomen and telling Sandrige: “This is what I’m about.”
As reported by the Washington Post, after the attack Sandridge had a broken orbital bone, a blood clot in one of his eyes and suffered memory loss. The woman he was with had a fractured cheek bone.
After reviewing CCTV footage, FBI investigators charged Metcalf with a racially motivated hate crime.
The federal judge said Metcalf had carried out a “brutal and outrageous attack”, ordering the defendant to pay $1,874.56 in fines. Metcalf was also found to have eight previous assault convictions, including domestic abuse and child endangerment charges.
“This vicious attack threatened the most basic standards of human decency and dignity,” deputy assistant attorney general Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said in a statement.
“While no sentence, including this one, can undo the harm inflicted, it does send an unequivocal message that the Justice Department will vigorously prosecute hate crimes.”
Metcalf’s lawyer, Melanie Keiper, argued her client was not a racist as he cared for the black son of an ex-girlfriend, and his female friend had “egged him on” during the attack.
The attack started, she said, when one of Sandridge’s friends knocked a mobile phone out of the hands of Metcalf’s fiancee, who was in the bar that night.
“It’s a horrible thing Randy did that night,” Ms Keiper said in court.
“It’s absolutely awful. But he did not do it because Lamarr Sandridge is black.”
