A 20-year-old Huntington Beach guy who we previously told you was accused of terrorizing an African-American woman and her white male friend, cut a plea deal that will send him to state prison for four years.
John Keihl DeLoach Charged With Hate Crime in Verbal and Physical Attacks on Couple
John Keihl DeLoach pleaded guilty Friday to one felony count of hate
crime battery causing injury and one felony count of hate crime assault
causing injury, as the Orange County District Attorney Office statement lays it out after the jump . . .
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October 25, 2010
CAUCASIAN MAN SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS IN PRISON FOR HATE CRIME FOR
VERBALLY ACCOSTING AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMAN AND ASSAULTING HER MALE FRIEND
WESTMINSTER – A Caucasian man was sentenced Friday to four years in
state prison for committing a hate crime against an African-American
woman and her Caucasian male friend by verbally and physically accosting
the victims. John Keihl DeLoach, 20, Huntington Beach, pleaded guilty
to a court offer Friday, Oct. 22. 2010, to one felony count of hate
crime battery causing injury and one felony count of hate crime assault
causing injury. He has a prior strike conviction for residential
burglary in 2009.
At approximately 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 1, 2010, DeLoach drove by a
Huntington Beach convenience store playing loud, racist music with
explicit anti-black lyrics. When the defendant saw victim Briana W., an
African-American woman, inside the store through the window, he pulled
his vehicle near the store and turned up the volume of his music.
At approximately 9:40 p.m. that night, Briana W. was walking to a
friend's apartment in Huntington Beach with a Caucasian male friend,
Derrick S. The defendant, who happened to be in the same apartment
complex visiting a friend, recognized the victim as the woman from the
store earlier in the day and yelled after her. He yelled racial slurs
and statrf that interracial relationships were wrong.
DeLoach and an unknown male accomplice ran up to Briana W. and continued
to yell at her. Briana W. asked, “What, dude?” and the defendant yelled
at Derrick S. to control his “b****.” When Derrick S. stepped between
Briana W. and the defendant, DeLoach punched Derrick S. in the face.
Derrick S. fell to the ground and DeLoach kicked him twice in the back.
The defendant then fled the scene and Briana W. called 911. Derrick S.
suffered a contusion on the side of his head as a result of the attack.
The Huntington Beach Police Department (HBPD) investigated this case.
On Oct. 1, 2010, the defendant was charged by the Orange County District
Attorney's Office and a warrant was issued for his arrest. That day,
HBPD officers arrested the defendant at Overlook Park. When contacted by
officers, DeLoach ran and resisted arrest.
Deputy District Attorney Israel Claustro of the Special Prosecutions Unit prosecuted this case.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.