Suspected gay bashers plead guilty Suspected gay bashers plead guilty (February 27, 2004)

Defendants face up to eight years in prison

By Dan Stapleton

Two men accused of attacking a 22-year-old man last October in Mountain View because they thought he was gay changed their plea from not guilty to no contest to all charges last Friday.

Prosecutor Dan Okonkwo said he refused to accept any plea bargaining from the defendants, and the no contest pleas were completely unconditional. In a criminal court, pleading no contest is the same as pleading guilty.

Michael James Daugherty, 30, of Alpine, N.Y., and Brian Daniel Walter, 26, of Highland Falls, N.Y., are accused of following Angel Edmundo Santuario as he passed the King of Clubs bar, which is known to have gay patrons, on Leong Drive to the parking lot of the Quality Inn motel on Fairchild Drive. They are accused of then beating Santuario with his own guitar while shouting anti-gay epithets.

A third suspect in the case, Gerrod Ian Cohn, 37, of Spokane, Wash. pleaded not guilty to the assault, but the judge found sufficient evidence to bring Cohn's case to trial. He will be arraigned March 1.

The assault is being treated as a hate crime because Santuario's assailants appeared to have attacked him for what they believed was his sexual orientation. Although a typical assault crime carries a maximum prison term of four years, Daugherty and Walter face a maximum of eight years in prison for the assault due to the hate crime enhancement. Sentencing will take place March 25.

Okonkwo said that it was impossible to predict if the judge would impose the maximum sentence, but given the hate crime status of the case, he recommends severe punishment. "I hope the court sends a very strong message to both of these individuals," he said.

E-mail Dan Stapleton at dstapleton@mv-voice.com

E-mail a friend a link to this story.