CALIFORNIA — A man who kicked a black woman in the chest and assaulted a white man at a convenience store in Marysville in a racially motivated hate attack was sentenced to more than seven years in prison, federal officials said.
During the sentencing hearing today, Judge John A. Mendez considered 30-year-old Billy James Hammett’s background and criminal history, which includes a second racially motivated conviction in 2006 for assaulting a 72-year-old black man after making racial comments to the victim, authorities said. The attack also occurred in Marysville.
Officials said Hammett pleaded guilty on Dec. 17, 2013, and his co-defendants, Perry Sylvester Jackson, 28, and Anthony Merrell Tyler, 33, have also pleaded guilty to racially motivated hate crimes. They are awaiting sentencing.
In sentencing the defendant to seven years and three months, Judge Mendez said he found surveillance video footage of the assault “disturbing.” He noted that Hammett’s attack on the victims was “unprovoked and unwarranted,” and that the victims continue to suffer, according to officials.
According to court documents, about 10:45 p.m. on April 18, 2011, a white man and an African-American woman parked their car at a convenience store in Marysville.
Shortly afterward, the three defendants, each of whom has white supremacist tattoos, attacked the man and woman because of their race. After calling the male victim a “[racial slur]-lover,” Jackson punched him twice in the head through the open passenger window. At the same time, Hammett kicked the woman in the chest, officials said.
A few seconds later, officials said Tyler smashed the car’s windshield with a crowbar.
As the attack continued, authorities said the woman managed to take refuge inside the convenience store. All three assailants then descended upon the male victim and began attacking him in the parking lot. He sustained abrasions on his right forearm and knees, while the woman suffered bruising to her chest.
At the end of the incident, Tyler used a racial slur to refer to a black witness.
Authorities said Hammett has been affiliated with a number of white supremacist gangs, including Supreme White Power. He has tattoos of the words “white power” across his abdomen, a large swastika on the right side of his torso and the word “skinhead” written across the top of his back.
Judge Mendez said during the sentencing hearing that Hammett poses “a serious threat to the public.”