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Man sentenced for hate crime

A Superior Court judge has sentenced a white supremacist gang member from Huntington Beach to state prison for attacking and spitting on a black man in a wheelchair six months ago in Costa Mesa.

Ronald Lee Bray, 25, pleaded guilty Monday to felonies of committing a hate crime and making a criminal threat with a hate crime enhancement. He was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.

On July 7, Bray spat on the wheelchair-bound man and pushed him into a street light pole outside of a 7-Eleven convenience store at East Mesa Verde Drive and Harbor Boulevard.

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Before running off, Bray raised his hand and yelled “Heil Hitler,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Scott Steiner said in a phone interview Tuesday.

Witnesses contacted the police, saying they had seen a white man hurl racial slurs at the man and then spit on him. Initially, the victim did not want to press charges, but he did after witnesses encouraged him to help police.

“Fortunately, two good Samaritans who witnessed the assault gave good physical descriptions to the police, and because of them we [were] able to quickly apprehend Bray,” Steiner said.

Steiner, who worked as a prosecutor on the case, said Bray initially pleaded not guilty six months ago, but later expressed “remorse and regret for his conduct” toward the victim.

Bray changed his plea to guilty Monday, accepting all the felony charges placed against him, Steiner said. Bray has been kept in custody since his arrest in July, Steiner said.

Steiner would not release the name of the gang Bray affiliated himself with at the time of the crime because he did not want to give the gang members “bragging rights” by seeing their name in print, he said.

“Race-motivated crime, however serious, will be dealt with harshly in this county,” Steiner said.

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