- Sun Nov 16, 2014 11:00 am
#49631
Joseph Paul Leonard Jr. did not hesitate to lay blame the day he ran over and killed a black man on Arden Way.
“Just because we got Obama for a president, these people think they are real special,” Leonard said, while sitting in the back of a sheriff’s patrol car after his arrest for his vehicular assault on Toussaint Harrison, 34.
The videotape of him in the patrol car was played in Sacramento Superior Court on Thursday. Other evidence at Leonard’s racially motivated hate-murder trial that got underway this week showed that he burned 23 feet of rubber before he smashed his 1997 green Chevy S-10 into Harrison.
With Harrison lying bleeding and broken on the pavement, Leonard got out of his truck – and kicked him several times in the head with his steel-toed work boots, witnesses said. Two days after the June 6, 2013, assault, Harrison died of his injuries at UC Davis Medical Center.
Leonard, who is now 62, also faces attempted murder charges, prosecutors say, for also trying to run over Toussaint’s friend Justin Oliphant. The second count also contains the same allegation that Leonard launched the attack “because of the victim’s status and perceived ethnicity.”
“Just because we got Obama for a president, these people think they are real special,” Leonard said, while sitting in the back of a sheriff’s patrol car after his arrest for his vehicular assault on Toussaint Harrison, 34.
The videotape of him in the patrol car was played in Sacramento Superior Court on Thursday. Other evidence at Leonard’s racially motivated hate-murder trial that got underway this week showed that he burned 23 feet of rubber before he smashed his 1997 green Chevy S-10 into Harrison.
With Harrison lying bleeding and broken on the pavement, Leonard got out of his truck – and kicked him several times in the head with his steel-toed work boots, witnesses said. Two days after the June 6, 2013, assault, Harrison died of his injuries at UC Davis Medical Center.
Leonard, who is now 62, also faces attempted murder charges, prosecutors say, for also trying to run over Toussaint’s friend Justin Oliphant. The second count also contains the same allegation that Leonard launched the attack “because of the victim’s status and perceived ethnicity.”