WOODLAND — Nearly a year to the day after the brutal hate-crime beating that greatly altered both of their lives, two Davis men came face to face in a Woodland courtroom Friday for the case’s long-awaited conclusion.
Seated in the jury box was the defendant, Clayton Daniel Garzon, who in a letter read by his attorney apologized for his attack on a gay man while using homophobic slurs on the night of March 10, 2013 — behavior he said he now understands was fueled by his use of alcohol.
“As a result of this incident, I have learned that many bad things often happen when alcohol is involved,” Garzon wrote. He also professed his support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and noted that, “given everything that happened that night, it demonstrates so clearly how words can hurt. … It is my continued hope that other young people will learn from my many mistakes.”
In the audience, surrounded by more than a dozen relatives and friends, was victim Lawrence “Mikey” Partida, who offered his own statement describing how the beating affected him not only physically, but emotionally as well.
“I had to re-learn everything over again because of you, Clayton Garzon,” wrote Partida, 33, who required not only rehabilitative therapy but also counseling to combat post-traumatic stress disorder “and be OK with myself in my own skin.” Relatives altered their daily routines to help care for him, “while you got to roam the streets free.”
“I hope you think twice before putting your hands on someone again,” Partida said in his letter, read in court by a victim advocate. “I hope that you get help in some way.”
With that, Yolo Superior Court Judge David Rosenberg sentenced Garzon, who turns 21 next Saturday, to a five-year prison sentence to be served locally at the county jail, followed by two years and four months of mandatory supervised release.
“Crime affects so many people … and there are going to be consequences for your criminal actions,” Rosenberg told Garzon. “I hope that once I finish sentencing that the healing process can begin for all parties, and for the community.”
The sentence was an expected one, part of an agreement reached in January when Garzon pleaded no contest to assault, battery and hate-crime charges. The only change Friday was the correction of “technical errors” in which the assault count was reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor, and the battery elevated from a misdemeanor to felony, in order for Garzon to serve time locally in compliance with the state’s prison realignment measure.
Garzon’s sentence also takes into account a no-contest plea to a charge of possessing metal knuckles in Solano County, where he had a pending assault case at the time of his arrest for the Davis beating.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Raven said in court that Garzon has paid $2,956 in restitution for the out-of-pocket expenses Partida and his family incurred as a result of the beating, but further restitution for medical bills and other costs has yet to be determined.
The assault occurred outside a home on I Street where a party had been held in honor of Partida’s 32nd birthday. Witnesses testified at a preliminary hearing in the case last May that Garzon, who lived across the street, also was at the party and appeared to show interest in one of Partida’s female cousins.
Prosecutors argued that an intoxicated Garzon became enraged when Partida thwarted his efforts to speak to the cousin as they left the party on foot. Partida was attacked when he returned for a set of keys, and witnesses reported hearing Garzon shout anti-gay slurs before and during the assault.
Defense attorney Linda Parisi, meanwhile, contended that Garzon was unaware of Partida’s sexual orientation and used the slurs as “slang” to challenge the other man’s masculinity — a claim that Garzon reiterated in his pre-sentencing statement Friday.
But Raven, the prosecutor, said one need not hate an entire class of people to commit a hate crime.
“One simply has to be motivated by a bias, in whole or in part, while committing a hate crime,” Raven said after the sentencing hearing. “That crime causes fear in that class of people who are targeted, and certainly the crime in this case caused those in the LGBT community to be fearful.”
As he exchanged hugs with his supporters outside the courthouse, Partida said he was gratified to at last get an apology from Garzon.
“It sounded sincere — that was more than anything I could have imagined for him,” Partida said. “It kind of helps me put my mind at ease, hearing that from him.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene
