Kayla Norton and Jose Torres, a couple from Georgia, have been sentenced to multiple years in prison after being part of a group that attacked a child's birthday party with racist threats in 2015.
NPR reports that the attack, which occurred in the weeks following the Charleston shooting in which a man shot nine black worshippers, involved racial slurs, armed threats and the waving of the Confederate flag. Norton will serve six years in prison, Torres will serve 13 years and both have been permanently banned from Douglas County where the attack occurred.
Georgia couple who belonged to Confederate-flag-waving group gets prison for racist threats at kid's birthday party https://t.co/gpoj0XDcCEpic.twitter.com/mSQGqwu61r
— CNN (@CNN) February 28, 2017
"Their actions were motivated by racial hatred," Superior Court Judge William McClain said.
Both Torres and Norton were found guilty of making terroristic threats and violating Georgia's street gang act. Torres reportedly pointed a shotgun at partygoers, and was convicted of aggravated assault.
The couple reportedly both cried as their sentences were handed down, and Norton told the court she accepted responsibility for her actions.
"I'm so sorry that happened to you. I am so sorry," Norton told the family. "But I want you all to know that that is not me. That is not me."
The couple is the last two members of the group of 15 white supremacists that participated in the attack to be sentenced. The gang, which called itself, "Respect the Flag," apparently went on an alcohol-induced rampage throughout west Atlanta with Confederate flags on the back of their pickup trucks.