Office of Campus Community Relations

April 29, 2005
Davis Enterprise

Hate crime charged for assault with bat

Author: Lauren Keene, Enterprise staff writer
WOODLAND — Yolo County Commissioner Charles Van Court is expected to rule next week whether the two defendants in a Davis baseball-bat beating should stand trial on attempted murder and other charges.

Christopher Jon Vochatzer, 28, of Davis; and 17-year-old Timothy Johnston of Vacaville — who is being prosecuted as an adult — are accused of attacking a fellow skinhead in what authorities have classified as a hate crime with gang ties.

Van Court, who is scheduled to issue his ruling Thursday, presided over a two-day preliminary hearing in the case earlier this week. Prosecutors presented testimony from police regarding the April 5 assault, which occurred at the victim's J Street apartment and left the 26-year-old with disfiguring injuries, authorities said.

Both Vochatzer and Johnston have pleaded not guilty to a long list of charges, including attempted murder, aggravated mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon and first-degree burglary. The charges carry enhancements alleging the incident was a hate crime involving criminal street-gang activity, which if proven could result in stiffer sentencing penalties.

It is one of Yolo County's first prosecutions involving a white street gang, Deputy District Attorney Jeff Reisig said.

"We carefully considered the facts of the case under hate-crime statutes, and we found it is applicable for what we know was the motive for the crime," Reisig said in recent interview.

Although he declined to discuss the specific motive, Reisig said hate-crime laws apply not only to members of a protected class of people, but also for advocates of those protected classes.

"If a Caucasian person attends a rally in support of racial harmony and is attacked because of that participation, that would be a hate crime, because the person is advocating for one of the protected classes," Reisig said.

On Tuesday, Davis police Officer Michael Munoz testified that the victim in the case picked Vochatzer and Johnston out of police photo lineups following the attack. Authorities have said Johnston orchestrated the assault, while Vochatzer wielded the bat.

But during his initial interview with police, Vochatzer claimed he had no knowledge of the attack, and that he no longer considered himself a skinhead.

"He began by telling me ... it was more of a class thing, and that skinheads had essentially become bastardized" in the United States, Munoz testified. "It became more about race and religion. He said the skinhead culture was more of a lifestyle ... staying clean, not using drugs."

Also taking the stand was Officer Aaron Delao, a Woodland police detective and member of the Yolo County's Gang Violence Suppression Unit, who testified about prior contacts between law enforcement agencies and Vochatzer and Johnston that have led authorities to link them with the neo-Nazi skinhead movement.

Delao also said both Vochatzer and Johnston bear numerous tattoos that are consistent with skinhead membership.

The two defendants appeared to watch Tuesday's testimony with interest. A heavily tattooed Vochatzer, who wore a blue jail-issued uniform, occasionally bantered with his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Bob Spangler, while seated in the front row of the courtroom's jury box.

Johnston, wearing dark-rimmed glasses and an orange jumpsuit indicating he is in Juvenile Hall custody, sat in the row behind Vochatzer.

Both defendants are being held without bail while their case is pending.

— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 747-8048.