A Georgia judge sentenced a couple to prison time now for their involvement in a 2015 incident in which a group they had been part of waved Confederate flags, shouted racial slurs and made armed threats, all at adults and children attending a child’s celebration outside of Atlanta.
Jose Torres, 26, and Kayla Norton, 25, cried nowadays in a Douglas County court as they had been sentenced to 20 years and 15 years in jail, respectively.
In July 2015, the parents of 3 young children were part of a group of Confederate flag supporters calling themselves Respect the Flag. For two days that summer time, the group rode around in pickup trucks threatening black households and calling them racial slurs across two counties in the Atlanta suburbs.
The group targeted black households shortly immediately after the Charleston church massacre simply because its members had been upset that South Carolina had responded to the brutal slayings by removing the Confederate battle flag from several sites.
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At 1 point, the group pulled up to a birthday celebration for a black kid in Douglasville. The group’s members allegedly threatened to kill the partygoers, with Torres confronting the loved ones with a gun that Norton had loaded. The household named the police.
Video of the incident was posted on YouTube by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In an indictment, Torres and Norton, among other folks, had been charged with aggravated assault, terroristic threats and violation of the state’s Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act.
For the duration of the pair’s sentencing right now, the judge said the pair’s actions “were motivated by racial hatred,” according to The Related Press.
By means of tears, Norton addressed the relatives of the child whose birthday she and other folks disrupted.
“That is not me. That is not me. That is not him,” Norton mentioned in court after her sentencing. “I would never stroll up to you and say these words to you. And I am so sorry that happened to you.”
4 people today had been charged with felonies, according to ABC affiliate WSB-Tv.com on the other hand, the other two people today pleaded guilty and got shorter prison terms.
The judge, saying Torres and Norton had committed a hate crime, also banned them from entering Douglas County soon after they were released from prison.
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