Man Gets 7 Years in Prison for Hate Crime Against Black Family

A white man convicted of brandishing a shotgun at a black family has been sentenced to a seven-year prison term, the maximum sentence for a felony hate crime.

The judge who sentenced George Filstead called him a “serious, serious danger” to the community.

Filstead, 41, sat quietly as Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco imposed the sentence.

The conviction Friday was the first in the Bay Area and only the second in the state since the Legislature passed felony hate crime statutes in 1987. The other took place in Los Angeles in 1991.

The victim, Jackie Hollis, 35, testified that she and her three children, ages 6 to 16, moved next door to Filstead in 1991. He started taunting them and making harassing telephone calls immediately, she said.

In April, 1991, she found him in her kitchen pointing a gun at her children and threatening to shoot them, using racist language.

A jury found Filstead guilty in February of assault with a deadly weapon, being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm, and assaulting the family solely because of their race. He has a criminal record that includes assault and forgery.

“In our case, the central fact was this defendant’s deliberate targeting of an African-American woman for violence because of the color of her skin,” prosecutor William Denny said.

Filstead’s attorney, Deborah Levy, challenged the sentence after the tense hearing.

“I think the judge overblew the nature of this crime,” she said. “He just kind of waved the gun.”

Filstead denied to county probation officials that he threatened the woman and her children with a gun. He conceded making racial remarks but said he did so “only after they first insulted me with racial slurs.”