Two Men Convicted in Federal Court of a Racially Motivated Attack

Two men, Shaun A. Walker of Mill Point, West Virginia, and Eric Egbert of Salt Lake City, Utah, have been sentenced for their previous convictions of federal hate crimes. They were sentenced in federal court in Salt Lake City, Utah. Walker has been sentenced to a term of 87 months( 7 years and 3 months) and Egbert to 42 months ( 3 years 6 months). After they are released from prison, each one will also be on federal supervised release for a period of three years. They will serve their full time in prison, unless they get time off for good behavior, because there is no parole in the federal prison system.

Walker has been identified as a former leader of a group called the National Alliance, which is a white-separatist group based in West Virginia and Egbert has been identified as a member of the same group.

These two, along with a third defendant, Travis Massey, were convicted by a federal jury back in April for participating in a the beating of James Ballesteros who is a Mexican-American. This attack was determined to be racially motivated The attack took place on New Year's Eve in 2002.

According to the evidence that was presented at trial, it was shortly before midnight when Walker, Massey and Egbert were in the O'Shucks Bar which is located in downtown Salt Lake City. They began to shout racial slurs at some of the patrons, Ballesteros was the bar's manager.

He tried to escort the three of them out of the bar, but they instead pulled him outside, knocked him to the ground and began brutally punching and kicking him.
They were also convicted of conspiring to violate the victims rights to be able to enjoy themselves in a public place without being threatened because of their race

Also included in the conspiracy charge is an allegation that Massey had participated in a similar assault in the past against an unidentified Native-American man. This attack took place outside the Port O'Call Bar in Salt Lake City in March 2003.

Since 2001, the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department has been responsible for charging 165 defendants in 105 cases of bias-motivated crimes.

The successful investigation that lead to the sentencing in this case was the result of cooperation by the Salt Lake City Police Department and the Salt Lake City Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The prosecuting attorneys in the case were Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlos Esqueda and Trial Attorney Stephen Curran of the Civil Rights Division.

Sopurce : FBI http://saltlakecity.fbi.gov/