A swastika-tattooed man was convicted Monday of berating and menacing a pregnant Black girl and threatening the lifetime of her unborn baby and now faces at the least 38 years in jail after the Orange County district lawyer appealed an earlier sentence he known as too “lenient.”
The case started practically seven years in the past, when Tyson Theodore Mayfield, a self-proclaimed skinhead, berated and menaced a pregnant Black girl ready for her bus on a Fullerton bench, in accordance with prosecutors.
The then-42-year-old Mission Viejo man clenched his fists and threatened the lifetime of the girl’s unborn baby, in accordance with a prison criticism.
The lady, generally known as Jane Doe in court docket paperwork, fled and known as Fullerton police, who didn’t find the person.
She quickly returned to the bench and so did Mayfield, who threatened her once more amid a barrage of racial slurs, in accordance with court docket paperwork.
This time, Doe tucked into a close-by restaurant and known as the police, who discovered and apprehended Mayfield.
That arrest and a responsible plea on two felony counts and one misdemeanor rely initially resulted in a five-year sentence. After a sequence of court docket disputes and strain from teams, together with the Orange County district lawyer’s workplace, Mayfield will serve at the least 38 years, in accordance with prosecutors.
Tyson Theodore Mayfield
(Orange County District Lawyer)
“I hope that nobody else ever has to really feel absolutely the blood-chilling terror this younger mom described as she needed to run for her life, and the lifetime of her child, not due to what she did, however due to the colour of her pores and skin,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer mentioned in a press release.
A name to the general public defender’s workplace was not returned.
Mayfield, now 49, was charged with one felony rely of constructing a hate crime prison menace with the flexibility to commit a violent harm, one felony rely of prison threats and one misdemeanor rely of petty theft in September 2018.
He plead responsible in Could 2019 and was initially provided a two-year sentence, in accordance with the DA’s workplace. Orange County Superior Court docket Choose Roger B. Robbins finally upped the sentence to 5 years, however dropped certainly one of Mayfield’s earlier two strikes, in accordance with the DA’s workplace.
That motion prevented Mayfield from going through California’s a lot harsher three-strikes sentencing, which calls for at least 25 years imprisonment.
Mayfield was beforehand convicted for felony assault with a lethal weapon in 2005 and felony mayhem in 2008 in Orange County. He was additionally charged and convicted of a misdemeanor hate crime utilizing a racial slur and punching a person in 2017.
Spitzer disagreed with Robbins, arguing that the five-year sentence was too “lenient,” and teams such because the NAACP and the Orange County Human Relations Fee rallied in help of Doe.
“He’s indiscriminately selecting out individuals on the road as a result of he doesn’t like the way in which they appear and utilizing violence towards them,” Spitzer mentioned of Mayfield in court docket in 2019. “Is a five-year sentence going to guard society towards somebody so evil?”
Finally, Spitzer appealed to California’s 4th District Court docket of Appeals later that yr, claiming that Robbins abused his discretion as a choose to drop a strike.
The appeals court docket agreed with Spitzer, noting that Robbins’ motion shocked them.
The case was despatched again to trial court docket and was delayed, in accordance with Kimberly Edds, the district lawyer’s director of public affairs, because the protection argued that their consumer wasn’t mentally sound.
Mayfield finally stood trial, was discovered responsible Monday and is due again in court docket Aug. 29 the place faces a sentence of at the least 38 years in jail.
“Whereas Choose Robbins ignored that younger girl’s pleas for justice, fortunately the jury didn’t ignore the info and convicted Tyson Mayfield of precisely what he did: threaten a pregnant black girl as a result of he’s a racist,” Spitzer mentioned. “We are going to by no means permit hate to win.”
