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‘Justice has been served,’ Suffolk man says of sentence for his Charlottesville attacker

Posted at 5:12 AM, Jan 10, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-10 05:13:53-05

DeAndre Harris, the African-American man who was beaten in a parking garage during racially charged protests in Virginia, says justice has been served after a man involved in the attack was sentenced this week. 

Daniel Borden of Ohio was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for participating in the beating during the August 2017 Unite the Right rally protests in Charlottesville.

Borden received a 20-year sentence Monday, with 16 years and two months suspended — meaning he will serve just under four years for his role in the beating.

Harris said he was hoping Borden would get a longer sentence, but he’s just glad to be alive.

“I think he should have got more time …. but justice has been served. I’m still here. That’s all I’m really grateful for,” he told CNN’s Don Lemon.

In May, Borden entered an Alford plea to a charge of malicious wounding, acknowledging there was enough evidence to prove he was among the men who attacked Harris without admitting guilt, according to CNN affiliate WVIR.

During his sentencing Monday, he apologized to the people of Charlottesville and to Harris, who was not in court. He told the judge he is not a bigot and expressed remorse for his actions.

The defendant was one of four men charged with the beating of Harris at the gathering of white nationalists and other far-right groups that culminated in the death of Heather Heyer when a man drove a car through a crowd of counterprotesters. A jury recommended last month that her killer, James Fields, be sentenced to life in prison.

The rally was originally planned as a protest over the city of Charlottesville’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a park.