WOODLAND — The three defendants in a UC Davis hate crime have resolved their cases, the plea agreements reflecting the serious nature of the incident while also embracing restorative-justice values, attorneys said.
Jake Daniel Lee, 23; Lonny Doyle Lee, 26; and Justin Charles Sheppard, 23; all pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of use of force to commit a hate crime stemming from a Feb. 15, 2016, incident in the campus’ West Village.
Authorities said the three men shouted racial epithets and threw objects at a female African-American student walking through the neighborhood.
The plea deals also called for Sheppard and Lonny Lee to admit to misdemeanor battery counts, and Jake Lee a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace with offensive words.
For the latter counts, the trio were sentenced to three years of probation and community service, among other terms. They must write apology letters to the victim and enroll in 20 hours of course work on the subject of black history in America.
Judge Daniel Maguire also imposed a two-year deferred entry of judgment on the hate-crime charges, meaning those counts will be dismissed in 2019 if the defendants perform successfully on probation.
Lonny Lee completed his plea deal Wednesday at a Yolo Superior Court hearing attended by the victim in the case. Jake Lee and Sheppard resolved their cases on Sept. 25. None of them were UCD students.
“We worked closely with the victim and the university to obtain a resolution that accounts for the seriousness of the offense but also provides an opportunity for offender rehabilitation, education and community restoration,” District Attorney Jeff Reisig said.
James Bradford, Lonny Lee’s public defender, said this week his client looks forward to helping people in need as part of his sentence.
“Lonny Lee is defined more by his 2 1/2 years of service to our country as a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps than he is by an alcohol-influenced, momentary lapse in judgment on one evening in Davis,” Bradford said.
“He regrets and understands how his actions were interpreted and hopes that this resolution can begin the process of healing for all involved.”
The victim in the case delivered a victim-impact statement Wednesday, saying the incident caused anxiety and trust issues she will carry for the rest of her life. She described suffering from night terrors that affect her sleep and, in turn, her work and studies.
“In class, instead of following the professor’s lecture and taking notes, I replay the incident over in my head, thinking about ways in which I can protect myself, thinking about if there are any escape routes if I’m ever put in another situation like this,” she said.
The woman also called “shocking” the nearly two years it took for the case to resolve, telling Maguire, “I hope that cases like this in the future are taken a little bit more seriously.”
Kayton Carter, director of the Center for African Diaspora Student Success at UCD, said the victim’s experience “happened to all of us, ethnicity aside, because she belongs to our community.”
“This hateful incident has shaken our small African diaspora community and made our traditionally welcoming community weary of outside visitors to our campus,” Carter said. “But with justice served, we can have some level of closure.”
The incident galvanized the UCD community, prompting campus leaders to denounce the defendants’ actions and members of the African diaspora to hold a march and press conference during which they demanded improved safety measures on campus.
In response, UCD police held a safety walk to identify poorly lit areas of campus, and emergency call boxes were installed in the Arboretum area, the Quad and in West Village. That inspired the city of Davis to hold its own safety walk through the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene