CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A federal jury has convicted a man of a hate crime in the beating of a black man at a Dubuque bar.
The Telegraph Herald reports jurors in federal court in Cedar Rapids deliberated a little more than three hours Wednesday, March 30, 2016, before finding 40-year-old Randy Metcalf guilty of committing a hate crime.
Metcalf was charged in the January 2015 beating of 31-year-old Lamarr Sandridge at the Northside Bar in Dubuque. Surveillance video from the bar shows Metcalf kicking and stomping on Sandridge’s head, even while he lay motionless on the floor.
“The evidence at trial showed that on January 12, 2015, Metcalf assaulted an African American male at the Northside Bar in Dubuque, Iowa, by stomping on and kicking his head as the victim lay barely conscious on the floor of the bar. Metcalf assaulted the victim and was then pushed away from him by another person in the bar, but then returned to kick and stomp the victim in the head again. The evidence further showed that he assaulted this man because he was African American and that Metcalf had been using racial slurs in reference to the man over the course of the night prior to the assault. Metcalf also displayed a swastika tattoo to other people who were in the bar prior to the assault and bragged about having burned crosses,” said a statement from U.S. Attorney Kevin Techau.
Metcalf has a large swastika tattooed on his abdomen, a skull with a swastika on the forehead tattooed on his right shoulder, as well as a tattoo of the name of a prison gang with white supremacist ties, according previous information from federal investigators.
Prosecutors said the beating was racially motivated. Metcalf’s attorney didn’t deny he beat Sandridge but argued that race wasn’t a factor in the dispute.
“Metcalf remains in the custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Metcalf faces a possible maximum sentence of ten years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, a $100 special assessment, and three years of supervised release following any imprisonment,” Techau’s statement said.
