A Texas man who filmed himself assaulting an elderly Black man two years ago during what is known as the “knockout game” was sentenced to 71 months in federal prison last week.
Friday’s sentencing came after Conrad Alvin Barrett, 29, pled guilty over the summer. In December 2013, Barrett — who was 27 at the time — was charged with a hate crime for punching 79-year-old Roy Coleman, fracturing the man’s jaw in two places. Barrett said he targeted the man to see if the assault against an African-American victim would be nationally televised.
In the disturbing video, Barrett hits the man before saying “KNOCKOUT!” and fleeing to his car.
The Huffington Post reports:
Barrett shot 11 videos on his cell phone, which his lawyer wrote in a court filing showed “nonsensical racist rants, discussion about ‘the knockout game’ itself” and “a great deal of racist remarks, slurs, and stereotypes, and they are highly inflammatory.” In one of the videos, Barrett said that African-Americans “haven’t fully experienced the blessing of evolution.”
The defense lawyer said Barrett had bipolar disorder and was intoxicated on prescription drugs and alcohol at the time of the attack.
“The defendant committed this shocking and violent assault against this vulnerable elderly man simply because he was African American,” Vanita Gupta, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that the rights of victims of violent crimes are vindicated.”
A lawyer for Coleman told KPRC that while the sentencing is a welcome one, his client “still needs some justice on the civil side.”
In addition to spending nearly six years in jail, Barrett will have to pay a $2,000 restitution fine and undergo three years of supervision following his release.
