Two sentenced in mob beating of Detroit motorist

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/two-sentenced-in-mob-beating-of-detroit-michigan-motorist-steven-utash/

July 7, 2014

DETROIT - A judge on Monday sentenced one man to prison and a second to probation for their involvement in a brutal mob attack on a Detroit motorist who accidentally struck a boy with his pickup truck.

Wonzey Saffold, 30, was sentenced in Wayne County Circuit Court to six years and four months to 10 years in prison for his role in the April 2 beating of 54-year-old Steven Utash.

Judge James Callahan later sentenced Bruce Wimbush, 18, to three years' probation.

Both pleaded guilty in June to assault in exchange for having attempted murder charges dropped. Three others also pleaded guilty in the attack on the city's east side and two of those are scheduled for sentencing Thursday.

The male attackers, including two teenagers, surrounded Utash and beat him severely after he got out of his pickup to check on the 10-year-old boy who had darted in front of him.
Utash, a tree trimmer from Macomb County, spent several days in a coma. He has been released from a hospital, but still is recovering from his injuries. The boy was hospitalized and later released.

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By April 9, a fifth suspect had been arrested.

Latrez Cummings, 19, and James Davis, 24, also pleaded guilty to assault and will be sentenced Thursday. A 16-year-old boy pleaded guilty to assault.

Callahan told Saffold that the mob's behavior "caused a tremendous upheaval in this city."

"People are hesitant. They're afraid to stop" for fear they'll suffer the same fate, Callahan said.

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Saffold apologized to the court and Utash's family.

His court-appointed attorney, Ray Page, said Saffold realized that what he did was wrong.

"The behavior was animalistic," Page told the court. "He's sorry. He's going away to prison."

Wimbush, who was 17 at the time of the attack, also apologized Monday. Wimbush has acknowledged punching Utash once in the jaw, but said he then stepped away and watched others continue the beating. After his arrest, Wimbush pointed out some of the attackers from surveillance video.

Outside the courtroom, Wimbush's stepfather, David Cleveland, said they continue to pray for Utash and his family.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/detroit-woman-grabs-gun-runs-white-man-beaten-detroit-mob-article-1.1752187

Gun-toting Detroit woman runs to help white man beaten by Detroit mob

BY Deborah Hastings, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, April 10, 2014

She got her gun, she ran into the street, and she threw herself on top of a white man being beaten by a mob of black men.

“He was a man. He wasn’t white. He was a man. And I was ready to shoot anybody who hit that man again,” retired nurse Deborah Hughes told FOX2 News in Detroit.

The African-American woman was protecting Steve Utash, 54, a white man who accidently hit a 10-year-old boy with his truck last week and got out to see if the youngster was hurt.

Hughes said she heard the commotion in her apartment across the street.

She looked out her window and saw a distraught Utash. “What did I do? Did I hurt him?” he called to the crowd that quickly had begun to form.

And then things turned ugly, Hughes told the station.

She could seen blow after blow raining down on the man.

That’s when she got her handgun and ran out the door.

“Me, I don’t want to hurt nobody,” said the Detroit woman.

But she guarded Utash until the paramedics arrived and police broke up the crowd.

Three people have since been charged with assault. A teenage boy was also charged with a hate crime Thursday in the mob attack captured by surveillance video. Utash was also robbed.

The boy was not seriously hurt and was treated for a broken leg.

Utash, however, remains in critical condition under a medically induced coma with severe head injuries.

Police have said Utash clipped the boy with his truck after the youngster ran into the street.

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