A former student at Mason Schools who was convicted in an attack on an African American man at the white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. will serve just under four years for the crime.
Daniel Borden, 20, was one of four men charged with beating Deandre Harris at the rally in August 2017. Video footage shows Borden, wearing a hard hat with the words “Commie Killer” scrawled across the front, with three other men who are beating Harris with pipes and sticks. Borden himself wields a six-foot wooden board in the video.
Two other men have also been convicted in the attack, which they claimed was carried out in self-defense. Borden entered an Alford Plea in May last year, meaning he acknowledged the court had enough evidence to convict him but did not admit wrongdoing.
The attack left Harris with eight staples in his head, a broken wrist and other, more minor injuries.
Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Richard Moore today sentenced Borden to 20 years for the crime, but suspended 16 years and two months of that sentence. Borden also received credit for 16 months he’s already served while awaiting trial, meaning he will spend three years and 10 months in prison.
Court documents list Borden’s address in Huber Heights, a suburb of Dayton. During his time at Mason Schools, another student reported that Borden, then 13, pulled a knife on him because Borden thought he was Jewish. Borden also reportedly drew Swastikas on school papers and gave the Nazi salute.
In a March letter to Moore, who is overseeing the case, Borden’s father Rick Borden vigorously denied claims that his son or the Borden family are racist, claiming members of the family hail from Colombia, the Dominican Republic and China. Instead, the elder Borden blamed the attack on “self-victimized ANTIFA NUTCASES” in the letter.
Shortly after the attack on Harris, another Ohioan, James Alex Fields, drove a Dodge Challenger into a crowd of anti-racism protesters, killing activist Heather Heyer and injuring more than a dozen others. Fields was recently convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for that attack.
This article appears in Jan 2-8, 2019.
