2 Orange County white supremacists to be arraigned in beating
The D.A.'s office says the men committed a hate crime attack in Seal Beach against another man who identified himself as half-Salvadoran.
Two self-proclaimed Orange County white supremacists are to be arraigned this week for an alleged hate crime attack in which they beat and stomped a man until he was unconscious.
The district attorney's office said this morning that Ryan Joseph Swanson, 19, of Huntington Beach and Nicholas Tyler Gibbs, 20, of Anaheim assaulted 24-year-old Ryan Honeycutt after he told them he is half-Salvadoran. Each could face a maximum of 11 years in prison if convicted.
Honeycutt had been drinking in a bar with a female acquaintance of Swanson, and the two called him for help after they went to Honeycutt's car in the parking lot and discovered the battery was dead. Swanson and Gibbs jump-started the car and they all went back to the woman's Seal Beach apartment, where the attack allegedly occurred.
Swanson and Gibbs have white supremacist tattoos, both identified themselves as white supremacists and Swanson allegedly called Honeycutt a "dirty . . . Mexican" before the beating, according to the district attorney's office.
Honeycutt suffered a fractured clavicle, a concussion and facial lacerations.
The men are also accused of taking Honeycutt's car after the attack. It was found abandoned three days later in a Long Beach parking lot.
The beating occurred May 26. Seal Beach police investigated the case and presented it to the district attorney's office. Gibbs was already in custody for an unrelated probation violation, and Swanson was arrested Monday.
Gibbs is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon and Swanson is to be arraigned Friday.
christian.berthelsen@latimes.com
