By Danny Fenster
ticklethewire.com
Two member of the Bloods street gang were sentenced in a US District Court in Santa Fe, N.M., for a hate crime against a developmentally disabled Navajo, the FBI said in a statement on Wednesday.
Paul Beebe and Jesse Sanford of Farmington, N.M were convicted and sentenced on federal hate crime charges related to the racially motivated assault of a 22-year-old developmentally disabled Navajo, according to the FBI and the Justice Department. Beebe received eight-and-a-half years in prison and three years’ supervised release, while Sanford got five years and three years’ supervised release.
Beebe, and Sanford were indicted by a federal grand jury, along with a third defendant who pleaded guilty and is still awaiting sentencing, in November 2010 on one count of conspiracy and one count of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (Shepard/Byrd Act), says the FBI. The three were the first defendants charged under the Shepard/Byrd law. Both pleaded guilty.
In August of 2011 the two admitted that Beebe has taken the victim to his apartment, covered in racist paraphernalia, and defaced the victim by drawing on him with markers a number of racist symbols once he had fallen asleep. When the victim awoke, gagged with a towel, Beebe branded him with a heated wire hanger, impressing a swastika into his skin. They recorded the event with cell phone cameras.
