A court has found guilty a fourth man guilty of a brutal attack on a 20-year-old African American during the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017.
On Friday, 50-year-old Tyler Watkins Davis appeared in the Charlottesville Circuit Court and entered an Alford plea, the local NBC affiliate, WVIR NBC29, reported. As part of a the plea, a defendant does not admit guilt, but admits there is sufficient evidence to convict him.
According to the local media outlet, Davis admits the incident took place but disputes the malice part.
Authorities issued Davis the charge after a group of white nationalists attacked DeAndre Harris inside a parking garage during “Unite the Right”, held on August 12, 2017.
The gathering was one of the largest US white nationalist rallies in recent decades.
Davis was a member of the League of the South, a neo-Confederate group that was highly active in far-right violence in recent years.
Pictures and a video of Harris’s attack by a group of white nationalists were shared widely online, leading to attempts to identify the perpetrators.
Harris suffered a spinal injury, a broken arm and a gash in his skull that that required staples.
According to the Washington Post, Davis was responsible for the head injury that resulted in staples.
Convictions
Including Davis, four men were arrested and convicted for the attack on Harris. The previous three were convicted.
Last month, Daniel Borden was ordered to serve three years and 10 months. During the violence, he was photographed wearing a helmet that read “commie killer”.
And in August 2018, Jacob Scott Goodwin and Alex Ramos were sentenced to eight and six years respectively for their role in attacking Harris.
Throughout the alt-right rally, white nationalists, neo-Nazis and white supremacists attacked and clashed with community members, anti-fascists and anti-racist activists across Charlottesville.
Unite the Right turned deadly when a driver rammed his vehicle into a crowd of anti-racist protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of others.
James Alex Fields Jr, who was photographed marching with a neo-Nazi group earlier in the day, has since been charged with a slew of crimes, including federal hate crimes.
The alt-right is a loosely knit movement including white nationalists, white supremacists and neo-Nazis, among others. After Charlottesville, it fell into disunity with legal backlash and infighting.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
