BREAKING NEWS

A Superior Court judge on Monday sentenced a white supremacist gang member from Huntington Beach to two years and eight months in prison for attacking and spitting on a black man in a wheelchair six months ago in Costa Mesa.

Ronald Lee Bray, 25, pleaded guilty to two felonies — one of committing a hate crime and another of making a criminal threat with a hate crime enhancement.

On July 7, Bray spat on the wheelchair-bound man and pushed him into a street light pole outside of a 7-Eleven convenience store at East Mesa Verde Drive and Harbor Boulevard. Witnesses contacted the police, saying they had seen a white man hurl racial slurs at the man in the wheelchair and then spit on him.

Initially, the victim did not want to press charges, but he did after witnesses encouraged him to help police.

When first charged back in July, Bray pleaded not guilty. He changed his plea after his attorney negotiated a deal with county prosecutors, Orange County District Attorney’s spokeswoman Susan Schroeder said Monday. Bray’s attorney could not be reached late Monday.