Boulder – A jury concluded Wednesday that an attack in which a black University of Colorado student’s jaw was broken was not racially motivated.
The jury, after more than a day of deliberation, found Phillip Martinez guilty of felony assault but not guilty of ethnic intimidation, the charge that launched the case to prominence and mobilized the community to more closely examine diversity and race-relation issues.
“I’m happy with assault,” said Andrew Sterling, the man whose jaw was broken. “At the end of the day, the fact that he broke my face is a little more substantial than he hurt my feelings.”
Prosecutor Amy Okubo said she also was pleased with the verdict. Assault is the more serious charge, legally, and Martinez, 39, faces five to 16 years in prison when he is sentenced April 21.
The assault happened early on June 3 as Sterling and a female friend walked home from a bar. A group of men drove by in a van. One whistled at the woman with Sterling and shouted a racial epithet, according to witnesses.
The van stopped. Sterling confronted the men, and a man got out of the van and punched Sterling twice in the face before, according to some witnesses, he yelled another epithet at Sterling.
The case stunned Boulder and CU. Officials and residents assembled $20,000 in reward money for whoever helped solve the case. In the months following, CU formed a commission to investigate how to improve diversity and tolerance on campus, and Boulder’s Human Relations Commission set aside money to start an anti-hate hotline and fight racism in the city.
“This was a trigger point for some people,” said Rob Smoke, chairman of the Human Relations Commission. “But not for people who had been working with these issues.”
During the trial, defense attorney Keith Pope argued that Martinez acted in self-defense. He said prosecutors couldn’t prove Martinez uttered the epithet, and if he did, Pope argued, it was in a “hip-hop way.” Martinez is not a racist, he said.
“I’m hoping after all these months, the headlines will say, ‘Not guilty of ethnic intimidation,”‘ Pope said Wednesday.
Jurors in the case said they decided relatively quickly that self-defense wasn’t an issue. However, one juror said they almost deadlocked over the ethnic-intimidation charge.
Another juror, Katie Goldstein, said, “Ethnic intimidation was extremely hard and almost impossible to prove.”
Sterling said he still thinks the assault was racially motivated.
Rodger Kram, who was one of Sterling’s professors at CU, said the case had positive effects.
“It’s been a catalyst for people on campus to think more about diversity issues,” he said.
As the jury returned with its verdict Wednesday morning, Martinez, wearing a white shirt and a tight red tie, fidgeted in his seat.
Sterling, in contrast, leaned back on a courtroom bench in the audience, his hands resting motionlessly in his lap, a relaxed look on his face.
“I’m just really happy to be done with it, close an ugly chapter in my life and move on to bigger and better things,” said Sterling, who graduated from CU in December and has applied to graduate schools.
After the last juror left, Martinez quickly took off his tie and undid a couple shirt buttons. As a sheriff’s deputy led him out of the courtroom, Martinez turned back toward Sterling and said, quickly, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s tough,” Sterling said, “to gauge an apology like that after it’s all over.”
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
