DA Adds Hate Crime Allegations To Charges Against Two Defendants In 4th/Cherry Halloween Night Assault/Battery On Two Men

The L.A. County D.A.'s office complaint as amended includes charges that one defendant (Lucas) allegedly violated Penal Code section 422.75(a) and both defendants (Lucas and Dunbar) allegedly violated Penal Code section 422.75(b).

Penal Code sections 422.75(a) and (b) state in pertinent part:

422.75 (a) Except in the case of a person punished under Section 422.7, a person who commits a felony that is a hate crime or attempts to commit a felony that is a hate crime, shall receive an additional term of one, two, or three years in the state prison, at the court's discretion.

422.75(b): Except in the case of a person punished under Section 422.7 or subdivision (a) of this section, any person who commits a felony that is a hate crime, or attempts to commit a felony that is a hate crime, and who voluntarily acted in concert with another person, either personally or by aiding and abetting another person, shall receive an additional two, three, or four years in the state prison, at the court's discretion.

As reported yesterday by LBReport.com, on November 2 the DA's office filed charges against Marquise Lucas, 19 (two counts of assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury plus a county of felony battery with serious bodily injury) and Sierus Dunbar (one county of assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and one county of felony battery with serious bodily injury).

The defendants have previously pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to return to court Nov. 17 for a preliminary hearing (at which time they will likely be arraigned on the additional hate crime charges)..

Related coverage:

Community Forum After Assault/Battery On Two Men in 4th/Cherry Area Draws Roughly 100 Concerned Citizens
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Victims In 4th/Cherry Oct. 31 Assault/Battery Are Two Men (Ages Early 50s and Early 60s), Say A Gay Slur Was Used Multiple Times
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LBPD Actively Investigating As Possible Hate Crime Assault/Battery On Two Men, Oct. 31, Area Cherry Ave./4th St.