Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office and Charlottesville Police Department(CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.) — A white man from Arkansas was found guilty on Tuesday in the brutal beating of a black man at last year’s deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Jacob Scott Goodwin, 23, was videotaped attacking 20-year-old DeAndre Harris on Aug. 12 inside of a parking garage after the controversial “Unite the Right” demonstration.
The rally, held to protest the removal of a Confederate statue, left one dead and 19 injured after a car-ramming attack.
The video shows Goodwin, from Ward, Arkansas, wearing a military-style helmet and holding a large shield as he kicks Harris to the ground and stomps him.
“[Goodwin] came to exercise free speech. Mr. Harris went to abuse free speech — not to exercise it, but abuse it,” Goodwin’s attorney, Elmer Woodward, said in his opening statement, according to The Washington Post.
The assault left Harris with a spinal injury, a broken arm and head lacerations that required eight staples.
Goodwin claimed he acted in self defense, but the city’s assistant commonwealth’s attorney, Nina-Alice Antony, said it was Goodwin who started the quarrel, not Harris.
“He was outfitted for battle,” she told the jury, according to The Post. “He’s got large goggles, boots. He’s got a full body shield.”
A 12-person jury, made up nine women and three men, found Goodwin guilty of malicious wounding and recommended a sentence of 10 years, with an option to reduce the time, and a $20,000 fine.
Goodwin is scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 23.
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