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Wisconsin man gets 10 years in prison for racist acid attack

Wisconsin man gets 10 years in prison for racist acid attack

A judge has sentenced a white Milwaukee man to a decade in prison for throwing acid in a Latino man’s face in a 2019 racist attack

MADISON, Wis. — A judge sentenced a white Wisconsin man to a decade in prison Wednesday for throwing acid in a Latino man’s face in a racist attack at a Milwaukee bus stop.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jean Marie Kies told 64-year-old Clifton Blackwell that he acted with hate when he threw the acid on Mahud Villalaz in November 2019. She said he wasn’t provoked and that his behavior was “diabolical.”

“We’re all different from one another. … When we let those differences cloud our judgment, that’s bias or prejudice or discrimination, and in this instance it is hate,” the judge told Blackwell. “I’m sure (the acid) was absolutely painful. And you caused him emotional distress that I think is never going to heal. You made him feel he’s not worthy and that’s diabolical.”

Villalaz testified that the vision in his left eye was permanently damaged by the attack, and the judge said Villalaz suffered second-degree burns.

Blackwell attended the hearing in a wheelchair dressed in a jail jumpsuit. Asked if he had anything to say before the sentence was handed down, he said Villalaz “still scares me very much.”

“I regret that it all happened,” he said. “I’m still scared I could drop dead of a heart attack right now as far as I know. I would definitely do it differently.”

Blackwell’s attorney, Michael Plaisted, asked Kies to sentence Blackwell to two to three years in prison. He argued that Blackwell isn’t part of any hate group and he was carrying the acid only to protect himself. He noted that Blackwell has been diagnosed with multiple personality disorders.

Plaisted acknowledged that Blackwell might have decided to argue with Villalaz because of his ethnicity, but he said Blackwell wasn’t trying to…

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