Sacramento man faces hate crime charge in brutal Halloween assault
A 24-year-old man who allegedly left a man severely injured in a Halloween assault in Sacramento’s Lavender Heights neighborhood is scheduled to return to court Monday on hate crime charges in the attack.
Sean Wesley Payton faces a felony count of assault causing great bodily injury in the early morning attack Nov. 1 in the 2000 block of K Street, Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office alleged in a criminal complaint. Prosecutors in their filing also alleged Payton attacked the man because of his sexual orientation.
Family members and friends of the victim in an interview with Sacramento television station KCRA said the man remains in a coma after the beating outside Badlands nightclub and that he will have permanent brain damage. Family members said the man’s head hit the concrete in the attack.
Payton is scheduled to appear Monday in Sacramento Superior Court for a preliminary hearing in the case, according to Sacramento County jail records. Payton is being held without bail at Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center near Elk Grove.
Sacramento police were called to the 2000 block of K Street about 1:30 a.m. Nov. 1 for a reported assault, finding the victim with serious injuries, department officials said. The man was taken to the hospital and officers at the scene soon found and arrested Payton on charges related to the attack.
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