Couple sentenced to long prison terms after '15 Confederate flag rally incident

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OUGLAS COUNTY, Ga. - A young couple was sentenced to prison for their part in a racially charged crime.

Both wept as the sentences were handed down.

"Their actions were motivated by racial hatred," said Superior Court Judge William McClain.

A Douglas County judge sentenced the defendants to a year longer in prison than the state was seeking: 13 years for Jose Torres and 6 years for Kayla Norton.

The couple, who have three children, was part of a larger group in July 2015 called Respect the Flag. Their convoy of trucks, flying the Confederate battle flag, pulled up to a birthday party for an 8-year-old black child.

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Norton was sentenced on one count of violating Georgia's street gang act and one count of making terroristic threats. Torres was sentenced on three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, one count of terroristic threats and one count of violating the street gang act.

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DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ga. - Douglasville police are investigating a Saturday afternoon incident that, according to witnesses, involved a convoy of Confederate Battle Flag-bearing pickup trucks interrupting a black child’s birthday party with racial slurs and threats of violence.

One of at least two cellphone videos from the incident shows Douglasville police officers holding back a group of black men and women as at least seven pickup trucks drive off. The trucks’ white passengers wave as the Confederate, American and military flags mounted on the vehicles flap in the air.

“This is a child’s birthday party,” one woman in the crowd can be heard saying.

The woman who shared the video, Melissa Alford, said the trucks were on her property and their passengers were armed and threatened to “kill y’all [N-words].” Alford said she is most upset because no one was arrested and now she’s worried for her safety. She said an officer told her at the scene it was because the threats and weapons were not captured on video.

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