A 34-year-old Georgia man faces up to 20 years in prison after being found guilty in the beating of an African-American man during racially charged protests last summer in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Alex Michael Ramos was among a group of attackers captured on widely shared cell phone video in the August 12 beating of DeAndre Harris in a parking garage during the Unite the Right rally.
A Charlottesville Circuit Court jury on Thursday convicted Ramos of malicious wounding, according to court clerk Llezelle Agustin Dugger.
The jury recommended a six-year prison term when Ramos is sentenced on August 23, Dugger said.
Defense attorney Jake Joyce asked the jury to find his client guilty of the lesser charge of assault and battery, CNN affiliate WVIR reported. Ramos took a “cheap shot” at Harris’ head, Joyce said in opening statements, according to the station. He did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.
The verdict comes one day after a separate jury convicted Jacob Scott Goodwin, 23, of the same chargein connection with the beating.
The maximum sentence for malicious wounding is 20 years in prison.
Two other men, Daniel Borden, 18, and Tyler Watkins Davis, 49, have trial dates set for the summer.
Vonzz Long, a friend of Harris’, told CNN the two were part of a group of people staging counterprotests that day against neo-Nazis and white supremacists. He said they got into an argument with people from hate groups who threw things and shouted racial slurs at them, and he and Harris got separated during the ensuing chaos.
When Long eventually found him, Harris was surrounded by neo-Nazis in the garage and being beaten bloody, he said.
Harris had faced an misdemeanor assault chargeafter a white protester claimed he had struck him in the head with a flashlight moments before the parking garage beating. But a judge acquitted him of the charges in March.
Related:
Local man beat in Charlottesville rally found not guilty
Suffolk man arrested on assault charges stemming from Charlottesville protest
Warrant issued for Suffolk man beaten in Charlottesville
Suffolk native says he was beaten during Charlottesville violence
