Colorado man pleads guilty IN stabbing
A Colorado man pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal hate crime for stabbing a Black man in the neck in an unprovoked attack at an Oregon fast-food outlet. Nolan Levi Strauss, 27, pleaded guilty to a hate crime involving an attempt to kill, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Oregon.
On Dec. 21, 2019, the victim entered an Arby’s restaurant and adjoining Pilot Travel Center in Ontario, Ore., as part of a pending job application, federal prosecutors said in a news release. The victim was sitting in a booth by himself waiting for a manager when Strauss approached from behind.
“Suddenly, unprovoked and without warning, Strauss stabbed the man twice in the neck,” the release said. The victim broke free from Strauss and ran to the far side of the room, collapsing on the floor. A maintenance worker used a belt to secure Strauss’s hands behind his back while waiting for police.
The worker asked Strauss why he stabbed the victim, according to the release. Strauss replied: “Because he was Black, and I don’t like Black people.”
Strauss was arrested and later admitted to investigators that he tried to kill the man “because he was Black.” On the day of the stabbing the victim was flown by helicopter to a Boise, Idaho, hospital for emergency surgery.
On Sept. 17, a federal grand jury in Eugene returned a singlecount indictment charging Strauss with a hate crime involving an attempt to kill.
Strauss is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 9 before U.S. District Judge Michael J. Mcshane. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Man is convicted of offering women rides home from Lodo bars and raping them.
A Denver jury, after deliberating Wednesday for about five hours, found a man guilty of sexually assaulting four women.
Byron Whitehorn, 52, who targeted women as they left bars in Denver’s Lodo area, was charged in 2019 with eight counts of sexual assault, according to a district attorney’s office news release. Whitehorn offered the victims a ride home and then sexually assaulted them, the
DA’S office said. The assaults happened from April 2017 to December 2018.
“I thank the jury for their service and am proud that we secured justice for these four brave women,” said Denver District Attorney Beth Mccann, in the release. “These women are to be commended for finding the courage to go through a criminal trial, and I hope their stories empower other sexual assault victims to report their abuse.”
Whitehorn did not have any significant prior criminal history to this case. DNA evidence linked Whitehorn to each of the rapes, according to an arrest warrant in the case. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 27.