A Georgia judge has sentenced Kayla Norton, 25, and Jose "Joe" Torres, 26, to spend a combined 19 years in prison for their role in a group's racist rampage at an 8-year-old's birthday party — an assault that included shouting racial slurs, making armed threats and waving Confederate battle flags.
After telling the court that she accepted responsibility for her actions, Norton turned to the area of the courtroom where families who attended the birthday party were seated.
"I'm so sorry that happened to you," Norton said, weeping in the courtroom at Monday's sentencing. "I am so sorry."
"But I want you all to know that that is not me," Norton said. "That is not me."
Norton and Torres, who are not married, have three children together. Prosecutors say they were part of a gang of white supremacists who targeted African Americans with racist taunts and threatened to murder minorities.
In court Monday, both Norton and Torres sat hunched over and crying after Superior Court Judge William McClain handed down his sentence: 13 years in prison and seven years' probation for Torres, and six years in prison with nine years' probation for Norton. Both of them are also banished from Douglas County, McClain said.
The sentencing comes weeks after a jury found Torres and Norton guilty of making terroristic threats and violating the Georgia Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act. The jury also convicted Torres of aggravated assault. Although Georgia doesn't have a law specifying a hate crime, that's the term both McClain and District Attorney Brian Fortner used to describe the behavior.
The assault occurred in July 2015, one month after a racist gunman killed nine worshippers at a historically black church in Charleston, S.C. Prosecutors say Norton, Torres and other members of a group that called itself "Respect the Flag" went on an alcohol-fueled racist spree in Douglas and Paulding counties, west of Atlanta.
With Confederate battle flags affixed to the beds of their pickup trucks, the group gathered for a ride that was purportedly meant to celebrate the flag's heritage.
"However, Paulding County 911 began immediately receiving calls that members associated with this group were threatening African American citizens at various locations in Paulding County and hurling numerous racial slurs in the process as well," according to the Douglas County District Attorney's Office.
After threatening black motorists, the group headed to Douglasville, where they happened upon an outdoor birthday party that included a cookout and bouncy castle.
"Victims and witnesses from the party, who were predominantly African American, testified to observing the group of trucks whose passengers were hurling a litany of racial slurs at them as they passed by," prosecutors said.
Several members of the group — some of whom are now serving prison terms of their own — got out of their trucks and approached the partygoers, threatening to kill them all. According to their fellow defendants and witnesses, it was Norton who retrieved Torres' shotgun — a tactical 12-gauge with a pistol grip — and loaded it before giving it to him.
Cellphone footage from the party shows police attempting to form a barrier in front of the families as the trucks drove off.
During his trial, Torres told the court he was carrying the shotgun for this own defense. But he then acknowledged lying to police about the gun — and to selling the weapon before he was arrested.
Months after the attack, the "Respect the Flag" group was indicted as a street gang by a Douglas County grand jury.
"They recognized that it was not about flying a flag but it was about pointing a shotgun at other people and threatening to kill them because of the color of their skin," Fortner said Monday.
Testifying for the victims at Monday's sentencing, Hyesha Bryant, who attended the party, said she forgave the couple.
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