According to The Gateway Pundit, a 21-year-old Montana resident is facing a felony hate-crime charge and up to five years in prison after allegedly telling an Indian man to "go back to his country," court documents show.
Citing reporting from the Billings Gazette, the outlet noted that 21-year-old Jaxton Tayte Collins was arraigned in Lewis and Clark County District Court over an August 7 altercation in downtown Helena. Prosecutors charged Collins with one misdemeanor count of assault alongside a felony count of malicious intimidation or harassment of civil or human rights.
According to a probable-cause affidavit, a witness told police he was walking with friends when a man wearing an orange shirt and a large cross necklace approached his friend, who is of Indian descent and wears a head covering. Court records allege that the suspect, later identified as Collins, shoved the man with both hands and "told him to go back to his country."
Witnesses described the confrontation to responding officers as "frightening" and characterized the encounter as an "attack." When additional police officers arrived on the scene, they located and detained Collins nearby.
According to the affidavit, Collins told investigators he had been drinking at a downtown bar earlier that evening. He admitted that after leaving the bar, he shouted at the man "to go back to his own country because he was angry," though he denied shoving him.
Under Montana statute, "a person commits the offense of malicious intimidation or harassment when, because of another person's race, creed, religion, color, national origin, or involvement in civil rights or human rights activities, the person purposely or knowingly, with the intent to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, annoy, or offend: (a) causes bodily injury to another; (b) causes reasonable apprehension of bodily injury in another; or (c) damages, destroys, or defaces any property of another or any public property." Prosecutors elevated the encounter to a felony under that state hate-crime provision, exposing the 21-year-old defendant to a substantially harsher sentence.
Collins is scheduled to appear for his next court hearing on April 8. If convicted on the felony count, he faces up to five years in state prison and a maximum fine of $5,000.
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