Jury Convicts Man in Hate Crime Case

SAN DIEGO â€”  In a rare use of the state’s hate crime law in a case involving attacks against women, a jury Thursday convicted an ex-convict of a felony hate crime in one attack but not in four others.

In the case that drew the hate crime conviction, the victim was standing near the door of a downtown nightspot when Billy Dean McCall, without saying a word, knocked her to the ground. She suffered a fractured skull.

In the other attacks, including one on the daughter of the police chief, the jury found that McCall, 28, pushed and menaced the women because they spurned his advances and not just because they are women.

The jury convicted McCall of four counts of misdemeanor battery in those attacks.

Jurors said that in those incidents, McCall had spoken at least briefly to the women and when they did not respond positively, he attacked them.

McCall faces a maximum of 10 years behind bars when sentenced. Without the one hate crime conviction, the maximum would have been three years.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Hector Jimenez, head of the hate crime prosecution unit, said the mixed verdict shows the difficulty of using the hate crime statute in attacks on women but vowed that it will not deter him from using it in the future.

“If I had an identical case again, I would file it the very same way,� Jimenez said. “I believe the facts were there. . . . No way is this going to make us reluctant to use the hate crime law against guys who think they can attack women.�

Defense attorney Karolyn Kovtun said she thought that the use of the hate crime law was inappropriate and influenced, in part, by the fact that one of McCall’s victims was Yvonne Bejarano, 18, daughter of Police Chief David Bejarano.

As filmed by a department store security camera, McCall approached Yvonne Bejarano as she was shopping and said something to her. When she attempted to walk away, he shoved her violently and then advanced toward her menacingly.

The film has been shown repeatedly on local television, a point that Kovtun made to the jury to bolster her contention that her client’s actions were considered more serious because the victim was the daughter of a public official.

“Do you think if that was you and me, that film would have been shown over and over?� Kovtun said.

When his daughter testified, the chief was in the courtroom to provide emotional support.

After the verdict was announced, McCall cursed his attorney and needed to be restrained by deputies before being led away to jail. “I didn’t do this,� he said angrily.

McCall, who has served a prison term for weapons violations, was in jail for an alleged attack on his brother when he was charged with the attacks on the five women.