2 Learn Fate for Racist Attack on Kid's Birthday

Jose Torres pointed gun, shouted racial slurs
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 28, 2017 8:27 AM CST
2 Learn Fate for Racist Attack on Kid's Birthday
Jose Torres weeps during his sentencing in Douglasville, Ga., Monday, Feb. 27, 2017. Superior Court Judge William McClain sentenced Torres and Kayla Rae Norton to lengthy prison terms for disrupting a black child's birthday party with Confederate flags, racial slurs, and armed threats.   (Henry P. Taylor)

A Georgia judge on Monday sentenced two people to lengthy prison terms for their role in disrupting a black child's birthday party with Confederate flags, racial slurs, and armed threats. Jose Ismael Torres, 26, will spend 13 years in prison for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, making terroristic threats, and violating the street gang act; Kayla Rae Norton, 25, is to serve six years for terroristic threats and violating the street gang act, reports the AP. "Their actions were motivated by racial hatred," said Superior Court Judge William McClain, who ordered the two permanently banished from Douglas County once they are released. Both wept as the sentences were handed down.

The two are the last of 15 people charged in the confrontation at the 8-year-old's party, which took place in Douglasville in July 2015, less than a month after white supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine African Americans at a historic black church in Charleston, SC. Only four were charged with felonies. The other two pleaded guilty and are serving shorter prison terms. Torres and Norton were found guilty of yelling racial slurs and threatening to kill partygoers, even the kids. Prosecutors said Torres pointed a shotgun at the party. "This is behavior that even supporters of the Confederate battle flag can agree is criminal and shouldn't be allowed," the Douglas County DA said in a statement. (More Georgia stories.)

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