San Diego
A San Diego man accused of committing a hate crime pleaded guilty Thursday to depriving a black man of his civil rights when he pulled a knife on him.
Walter McNarney, 30, also pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon in the April 28 incident at a 7-Eleven store in Ocean Beach. The black man was accompanied by a white woman, which angered the defendant, the prosecutor said.
McNarney, who is white and in the past has associated with skinheads, a losely connected neo-Nazi group, will be sentenced Aug. 8, Deputy Dist. Atty. Luis Aragon said. He faces a maximum sentence of four years in state prison.
Neither person in the incident was injured. McNarney yelled racial epithets at the black man before his arrest.
He pleaded guilty in San Diego Superior Court the day he was to have gone to trial. McNarney remains in County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.
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