Man sentenced to 5 years in Denver hate crime

A Denver man convicted of assaulting two Hispanic men as he shouted racist slurs has been sentenced to five years in prison.

The Denver district attorney’s office says 43-year-old Ryan Austin Lee will then be on parole for two years. Lee was convicted in April of two counts of bias-motivated crime and two counts of third-degree assault for the March 2018 attack.

According to prosecutors, Lee reached through a car window and punched one of the men. When the men got out of the car, authorities say Lee grabbed the second man by his collar, threw him to the ground and kicked him while shouting the racist slurs.

District attorney Beth McCann said that evidence allowed a jury to find Lee guilty of the hate crime charges.