5 Guilty in Attack on Black Marine
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SAN DIEGO — Five white men each pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony assault charge in a beating that left a 21-year-old black Marine paralyzed.
Lance Cpl. Carlos Colbert of Camp Pendleton was paralyzed from the neck down.
When San Diego Superior Court Judge Frederic Link asked Jessie Brian Lawson if he beat Colbert because of his race, the 20-year-old said: “That is correct.”
Colbert suffered a broken neck in the May 30 attack at a party in Santee, about 20 miles northeast of San Diego.
Lawson pleaded guilty to assault and the allegation of committing a hate crime. He could spend from two to 11 years in prison.
Trenton Joe Solis, 18; Robert Rio, 23; Jed Allen Jones, 21; and Steven Lawrence Newark III, 18; face one year in jail and a five-year probation.
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