A swastika-tattooed man was convicted Monday of berating and menacing a pregnant Black woman and threatening the life of her unborn child and now faces at least 38 years in prison after the Orange County district attorney appealed an earlier sentence he called too “lenient.”
The case began nearly seven years ago, when Tyson Theodore Mayfield, a self-proclaimed skinhead, berated and menaced a pregnant Black woman waiting for her bus on a Fullerton bench, according to prosecutors.
The then-42-year-old Mission Viejo man clenched his fists and threatened the life of the woman’s unborn child, according to a criminal complaint.
The woman, known as Jane Doe in court documents, fled and called Fullerton police, who didn’t locate the man.
She soon returned to the bench and so did Mayfield, who threatened her again amid a barrage of racial slurs, according to court documents.
This time, Doe tucked into a nearby restaurant and called the police, who found and apprehended Mayfield.
That arrest and a guilty plea on two felony counts and one misdemeanor count initially resulted in a five-year sentence. After a series of court disputes and pressure from groups, including the Orange County district attorney’s office, Mayfield will serve at least 38 years, according to prosecutors.
“I hope that no one else ever has to feel the absolute blood-chilling terror this young mother described as she had to run for her life, and the life of her baby, not because of what she did, but because of the color of her skin,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer said in a statement.
A call to the public defender’s office was not returned.
Mayfield, now 49, was charged with one felony count of making a hate crime criminal threat with the ability to commit a violent injury, one felony count of criminal threats and one misdemeanor count of petty theft in September 2018.
He plead guilty in May 2019 and was originally offered a two-year sentence, according to the DA’s office. Orange County Superior Court Judge Roger B. Robbins eventually upped the sentence to five years, but dropped one of Mayfield’s previous two strikes, according to the DA’s office.
That action prevented Mayfield from facing California’s much harsher three-strikes sentencing, which calls for a minimum of 25 years imprisonment.
Mayfield was previously convicted for felony assault with a deadly weapon in 2005 and felony mayhem in 2008 in Orange County. He was also charged and convicted of a misdemeanor hate crime using a racial slur and punching a man in 2017.
Spitzer disagreed with Robbins, arguing that the five-year sentence was too “lenient,” and groups such as the NAACP and the Orange County Human Relations Commission rallied in support of Doe.
“He is indiscriminately picking out people on the street because he doesn’t like the way they look and using violence against them,” Spitzer said of Mayfield in court in 2019. “Is a five-year sentence going to protect society against someone so evil?”
Eventually, Spitzer appealed to California’s 4th District Court of Appeals later that year, claiming that Robbins abused his discretion as a judge to drop a strike.
The appeals court agreed with Spitzer, noting that Robbins’ action shocked them.
The case was sent back to trial court and was delayed, according to Kimberly Edds, the district attorney’s director of public affairs, as the defense argued that their client wasn’t mentally sound.
Mayfield eventually stood trial, was found guilty Monday and is due back in court Aug. 29 where faces a sentence of at least 38 years in prison.
“While Judge Robbins ignored that young woman’s pleas for justice, thankfully the jury did not ignore the facts and convicted Tyson Mayfield of exactly what he did: threaten a pregnant black woman because he is a racist,” Spitzer said. “We will never allow hate to win.”
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