Georgia pair sentenced to combined 35 years for terrorizing black child's birthday party with Confederate flags

[SZonian]

A Georgia man and woman have been sentenced to a combined 35 years after terrorizing a black child’s birthday party with Confederate flags, racial slurs and threats.

Jose Ismael Torres and Kayla Rae Norton were convicted earlier this month under a street gang terrorism law for the 2015 harassment in Douglassville, outside Atlanta, and cried in court on Monday.

Video footage from the party, little more than a month after Dylann Roof’s Charleston church massacre, shows a parade of trucks roaring by with Confederate “Stars and Bars” flags.

One person is heard shouting the n-word, while witnesses said that another had a gun sand said “he was gonna kill the n-----s.”

[excerpted]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/pair-sentenced-terrorizing-birthday-confederate-flags-article-1.2983749

[dfwgator]

Jose Ismael Torres

Now there's a redneck name if I ever heard one. 

[Suppressed]

Jose Ismael Torres

Now there's a redneck name if I ever heard one. 

[dfwgator]

Ahhh, a "White" Hispanic.

[Wingnut]

Should have just killed em.  The sentence would have been shorter.

[Suppressed]

Should have just killed em.  The sentence would have been shorter.

It's incredible how long that sentence is.

[TomSea]

The sentences must have been for hate crimes per Georgia law. The articles are a bit scant on the full charges.

[TomSea]

13 years for the guy, it wouldn't surprise me if one could find felons convicted of armed robbery getting lighter sentences.

http://www.waaytv.com/ap/domestic/receive-prison-for-threats-slurs-at-black-child-s-party/article_602ae208-d1f6-5891-a4f2-608b2079b1bc.html

[Suppressed]

13 years for the guy, it wouldn't surprise me if one could find felons convicted of armed robbery getting lighter sentences.

http://www.waaytv.com/ap/domestic/receive-prison-for-threats-slurs-at-black-child-s-party/article_602ae208-d1f6-5891-a4f2-608b2079b1bc.html

I think that others took a deal for 4 years.

Amazing.

[240B]

13 years for the guy, it wouldn't surprise me if one could find felons convicted of armed robbery getting lighter sentences.

Or rape or even murder. I'm sure they will appeal. I don't condone what they did, but these sentences are outrageous.

[TomSea]

Actually banished from the county after they serve their time, I don't see that handed out often.

He sentenced Torres to 20 years, with 13 to serve in prison; Norton was given 15 years, with six to serve. Upon their release, McClain ordered them to be permanently banished from Douglas County.
- http://www.ajc.com/news/local/judge-orders-stiff-sentences-for-two-douglasville-hate-crime/pHWEb5zXxdVqGBGxGNtorI/

This too, explains the rampage a little better. Walking up to cars with a gun and with that behavior, yes, you have to come down hard on them.   

Assistant District Attorney David Emadi detailed how the group had gone on a drunken, two-county rampage in pick-up trucked laden with Confederate battle flags through Paulding and Douglas counties over July 24 and July 25.

Emadi said the group threatened African-American motorists, yelled at them and walked up to one of their cars with a gun. They also threatened African American shoppers at a Paulding County Walmart and at a convenience store.

“Many good people in Paulding County saw you for what you are,” McClain said before he handed down the sentence. “Everywhere you went 911 call centers were flooded with calls.”

McClain then quoted one of the callers.

‘“I want to report a hate crime,’” he said.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Or rape or even murder. I'm sure they will appeal. I don't condone what they did, but these sentences are outrageous.

Unless there is something that didn't get covered in the report that seems like a heck of a long time in jail for simply being an unmitigated J@ck@$$.

[goatprairie]

Is there a precedent for these kinds of sentences? Or is the judge being political? I've never heard of people being sentenced for those kinds of offences for that long without actually physically harming other people.  Pointing weapons at people is not good, but again, nobody was physically harmed.
I'm sure there have been other people of various ethnicities who have done the same thing.  It would be interesting to see what their sentences were.

[Fishrrman]

goatprairie wrote above:
"Is there a precedent for these kinds of sentences? Or is the judge being political? I've never heard of people being sentenced for those kinds of offences for that long without actually physically harming other people."

It was quite a few years' back I put up a comment on TOS relevant to this. I wish I'd archived it, but I didn't.

I recall posting that the time was coming in America when it would become all-but impossible to convict blacks of -real- criminal acts (beyond "slap on the wrists"), and -- at the same time -- it would become the norm to see whites sentenced severely for "hate crimes", etc.

Looks like that time has arrived.

[TomSea]

That this happened right after the shootings in Charleston is surely, a reason why the judge acted so harsh but one would think there is some legal remedy to get such sentences reduced.