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SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A California man was sentenced Friday
to 27 years to life in prison for making racist threats against
a pregnant Black woman after prosecutors appealed an earlier,
lighter sentence, officials said.
Tyson Mayfield, 49, pleaded guilty in a court-offered deal in
2019 to get a five-year sentence that the Orange County District
Attorney's office opposed and later appealed.
An appeals panel rejected the decision, and Mayfield was retried
and convicted of making criminal threats with an enhancement for
a hate crime.
“Over the last six years we have fought and fought and fought
for justice in this case,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer said
in a statement. “Justice was finally served today against a man
who spent decades hating others, and now he will spend decades
behind bars where he belongs.”
A message was left at the public defender's office seeking
comment.
Mayfield was accused of threatening and yelling racial slurs at
a woman who was eight months pregnant at a bus stop in Fullerton
in 2018, prompting her to use pepper spray to protect herself
and run for help.
Authorities said Mayfield, who is white and has a swastika
tattoo, had prior convictions for attacking bystanders,
including punching a man outside a supermarket while yelling a
racist slur.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Roger B. Robbins made the
offer to Mayfield in 2019, noting no weapon was used or injury
caused during the crime. Prosecutors and community advocates
said Mayfield shouldn't have been eligible for the deal because
of his prior convictions.
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