Three white women beaten by a black mob in Long Beach told a court they were physically and emotionally devastated and asked the judge to give "the harshest punishment possible" to nine minors convicted last week for the Halloween attack.
The trio -- Loren Hyman, 21, and Laura Schneider and Michelle Smith, both 19 -- sobbed through much of their statements, saying they did nothing to provoke the beating and have been scared to leave their homes ever since.
"I hope they're still in jail when our injuries are finally healed," Schneider said.
Hyman, who sustained multiple fractures in her nose and around her eye, is scheduled to have 4 1/2 -hour facial reconstruction surgery Friday. "Perhaps the only thing worse than suffering 13 facial fractures was seeing my friend Laura lying on the ground lifeless," she said.
Judge Gibson Lee listened intently to the accounts, which he will consider when he begins sentencing hearings Friday.
Defense attorneys said Wednesday they had been told that prosecutors would not seek time in the California Youth Authority for the juveniles, which would have been the maximum penalty possible. None of the minors have criminal records, though one has been accused of battery in an unrelated case.
The Los Angeles County Probation Department has recommended that they spend six to nine months in youth camp, the lawyers said.
According to testimony in the seven-week trial, as many as 30 black youths took part in the assault on a street in the well-to-do Bixby Knolls area, which has long attracted crowds with its elaborate Halloween displays.
Witnesses said someone in the mob yelled a racial slur and one black youth smashed a woman in the face with a skateboard. Two other black youths are scheduled to go on trial later in connection with the beatings.
The juveniles on trial claimed that a group of black males wearing black hooded sweatshirts attacked the women. In a tape of a 911 call, a neighbor described the culprits as males in black sweatshirts.
But several defense attorneys have expressed frustration that none of the minors on trial admitted any involvement in the melee.
Defendants who had been in the scrum could have pointed out who was not involved, the lawyers said. Instead, by closing ranks, they perpetuated the sense that the 10 were on trial as a group, not individuals.
