A San Diego man has pleaded guilty to felony hate crime charges for beating a Syrian teenager on a trolley after the refugee spoke on Face Time in Arabic with a friend, local ABC affiliate KGTV reported.
Adrian Vergara, 26, upon hearing the teen speak a foreign language on the trolley, asked him if he was Mexican.
When the boy reportedly responded, "No, I am Arab," Vergara started punching him and cursing while using racial slurs.
Vergara had been arrested on October 22 on an unrelated misdemeanor drug charge, but while he was in custody, he was recognized in connection to the hate crime investigation from the previous week.
Vergara pleaded guilty to assault and hate crime charges, and, as part of the plea deal, is expected to be sentenced December 5 to five years in prison.
The teen told Fox affiliate KSWB that his family escaped Homs to flee the Syrian civil war, but then discovered that they were not welcomed by everyone in the U.S., when his brother and mother experienced racist abuse.
“We came to this country under the belief that we would have civil rights and liberties and safety,” he said. “When the attack happened to my brother we realized this wasn’t true for everyone.”
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