Ryan Kyle, a white man who hurled a black man onto subway tracks and then beat him unconscious, pleaded guilty Thursday to committing a federal hate crime, the first one ever brought in this district.
U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon immediately sentenced him to three years in federal prison, but that term will be served at the same time as a state prison sentence of three to six years he is serving for the same attack.
“I hope that this has taught you some valuable lessons,” she told him, adding that she hopes he will never repeat what he did.
He promised he wouldn’t but otherwise said nothing, and U.S. Marshals led him out in handcuffs to take him back to the state prison at Albion.
In addition to the prison term and three years of probation, the judge ordered him to pay $800 in restitution for a lost cell phone and other expenses related to the assault.
Kyle, 23, was the first person charged under the federal hate crimes statute in Western Pennsylvania since the 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act became law.
The U.S. Attorney’s office had charged him in November by a direct complaint as opposed to a grand jury indictment, after conferring with the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office. At the time, former U.S. Attorney David Hickton said the case was important for his office to bring regardless of the sentence.
“There are federal interests and state interests many times that are parallel with the same conduct,” he said. “It’s important to highlight that message in this case. If you commit conduct like this, there are multiple avenues for the community to seek redress.”
Video of the attack
Kyle was convicted in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court last February of aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation for attacking Kevin Lockett at the Wood Street T station on May 30, 2015 after a Kenny Chesney concert.
Mr. Lockett was carrying a cooler of beer, liquor, water and food and riding the T that day when Kyle and a group of his friends began harassing him. Mr. Lockett missed his stop and got off at Wood Street.
Kyle and his friends also got off, after which Kyle grabbed Mr. Lockett around the waist and threw him off the platform onto the subway tracks. A Port Authority camera recorded the attack, but no audio, so no one is exactly certain who said what before the assault.
Someone else in the group took Mr. Lockett’s cooler.
When Mr. Lockett climbed back up onto the platform, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Cindy Chung, Kyle punched him, knocking him unconscious, and then continued to punch him.
Ms. Chung said Mr. Lockett said he heard someone call him a racial slur and say, “I’ll kill you,” while he was on the subway tracks, although he didn’t know who it was. Right before Kyle punched Mr. Lockett, Ms. Chung said, Kyle used the same slur, according to a witness.
After he was arrested, Ms. Chung said Kyle admitted to the attack, used the slur again and said Mr. Lockett deserved to be beaten.
Kyle’s lawyer, Al Burke, objected to that description and other details of the attack, saying he had not received any reports or witness statements despite a police investigation and an FBI probe.
Still, his client agreed with enough of the description to enter his plea.
“In sum,” Ms. Chung said in a pre-sentence filing, “this was a violent assault, motivated by the victim’s race, which caused the victim to suffer serious injuries.”
Mr. Lockett underwent several facial reconstruction surgeries and has blurred vision.
He appeared in court wearing sunglasses and addressed the judge in a low rasp, pointing out that Kyle did not show remorse and that the attack has affected his family.
He also used the moment to show that the incident brought out the best and worst of people regardless of race.
He said a black woman sat on a bench at the station, cracking her gum and doing nothing during the assault, but a white woman came to his aid as he lay on the ground. He said he wished he knew who she was to thank her.
“So there are some good people,” he said.
Four other young men were charged in the incident in state court, although none touched Mr. Lockett.
All pleaded to conspiracy and received probation and community service.
First Published: February 23, 2017, 6:02 p.m.
