Springfield man sentenced to prison in anti-Haitian hate crimes
Dec. 5—A Springfield man who pleaded guilty to committing crimes against Haitian nationals living in the city has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Izaye Eubanks, 22, pleaded guilty earlier this year in U.S. District Court and Clark Clark County Common Pleas Court to charges stemming from assaults, robberies and a carjacking in January and February of Haitian individuals because of the victims' actual or perceived national origin, according to a release from U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Kenneth Parker.
He will serve his federal sentence concurrently to his local one, where he pleaded guilty to five counts of felonious robbery.
Court documents said that Eubanks would travel throughout Springfield looking for people he thought were from Haiti and attack them, usually by punching them and knocking them to the ground before robbing them of their money, cell phones, and other personal belongings, and in one case a vehicle, the release said.
Some of these attacks included punching one person in the back of the head who was walking to wire $300 to his mother in Haiti before robbing him; pulling one victim out of his vehicle and punching him in the face before stealing the vehicle; and directing juveniles to help him complete four separate attacks on five victims.
Hate and discrimination have never had a place in our society. As today's significant prison sentence shows, they have no place today," Parker said. "We will continue to prosecute hate crimes to the fullest extent of the law."
