First Attacker Convicted in Beating at Charlottesville Rally

Jacob S. Goodwin, who was accused of brutally beating a black man at a rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year, was convicted on a felony count of malicious wounding on Tuesday, making him the first person to face judgment for one of the event’s most prominent acts of violence.

Jurors recommended Goodwin, 23, of Ward, Arkansas, face 10 years in prison, a $20,000 fine and a rehabilitation or empathy plan, according to NBC 29, a local TV station. A judge is scheduled to sentence him this summer.

Goodwin, who is white, was one of six men to surround and attack DeAndre Harris, 20, in a parking garage on Aug. 12, beating him with metal pipes and wooden boards. Harris suffered a broken wrist and a head wound that required 10 staples.

The attack was captured on video, and the footage spread widely on social media as amateur sleuths set out to identify the assailants. Two remain unidentified, but three others have been arrested: Alex Michael Ramos, 34; Daniel P. Borden, 18; and Tyler Watkins Davis, 50.

A trial for Ramos began on Wednesday. Borden’s trial is scheduled for June 5, and Davis’ is set for July 16.

A lawyer for Goodwin, Elmer Woodard, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

S. Lee Merritt, a lawyer for Harris, said in a statement the verdict was vindicating, but criticized the lack of hate crime charges.

“If hate crime charges were not appropriate in this case, it is difficult to imagine a situation in which such charges would be appropriate,” he said. “These shortcomings will be addressed in the civil litigation our office will move forward with at the completion of these criminal matters.”

During the trial, Goodwin and his lawyer argued that he had acted in self-defense. Goodwin said he thought Harris was running at him, so he kicked him.

“I believed I was going to be attacked,” Goodwin testified on Tuesday, according to NBC 29.

The defense mirrored the arguments of right-wing critics, who have portrayed Harris as the instigator. But Harris was acquitted in March on a felony charge of malicious wounding — a charge that was later amended to misdemeanor assault — related to an incident shortly before he was beaten.

And Nina-Alice Antony, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney, said it was Goodwin who had been looking for a fight.

“He was outfitted for battle,” she told the jury, according to The Washington Post. “He’s got large goggles, boots. He’s got a full body shield.”

Goodwin wore two pins to the rally suggesting racist views, The Post reported: one of the number 88, considered a tribute to Adolf Hitler, and one with the logo of the Traditionalist Worker Party, a white nationalist group.

Hundreds of white supremacists and nationalists attended the rally in Charlottesville, a weekend in which there were several violent scuffles as they protested the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. A 32-year-old woman, Heather D. Heyer, was killed when a man drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters. James Alex Fields Jr., who is accused of driving the car, has been charged with first-degree murder.

Harris, an instructional aide for children in special education classes, has quit his job and moved away from Charlottesville, his lawyer said last year.

The jury deliberated for about two hours on Tuesday before the guilty verdict was returned.