A California couple was sentenced Wednesday for their role in a racially motivated 2018 attack that left a Black man with a broken jaw.
Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine Pacioni said Wednesday, Jan. 20 that Noah Boewer will serve six years in prison, and that his wife Tricia Boewer will spend 60 days in Monterey County Jail and a year on probation for their parts in the assault in the Northern California city of Monterey.
The attack happened on July 6, 2018, after the Boewers went to the Monterey Lanes bowling alley to bowl. The victim, Dirrick Williams, a 62-year-old Air Force veteran who is described by the Cedars Street Times local newspaper as an ordained minister with a master’s in theology from Morehouse College, was also present at the bowling alley to pick up entry forms for a fundraising event that benefits a youth services nonprofit.
While standing outside the building, the couple encountered the Williams as he attempted to leave through the front door.
“Excuse me,” Williams said to the couple.
Tricia Boewer, 38, responded to the man by yelling racial slurs at him, while Noah Boewer, 49, tried to punch the mam, although he blocked the blow.
Tricia Boewer falsely accused Williams of grabbing her behind, and Williams turned to question why she had called him the N-word. Tricia Boewer then jumped on Williams’ back and Noah Boewer punched him in the left side of his face, inflicting seven facial fractures, including a jaw fracture.
A jury found Noah Boewer guilty of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and found true a special allegation that he personally inflicted great bodily injury on the victim. He was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Andrew Liu.
The jury rejected the couple’s self-defense claims. The couple was also charged with a hate crime but were found not guilty.
A bartender who served the couple inside the bowling alley said Noah Boewer confronted two Asian men inside the bowling alley and hurled racial slurs at them.
“That particular word is just not the sort of thing that rolls off the tongue. It is not easily uttered, it pains most people to hear it, it is even more difficult to get that word to leave one’s lips.” Liu said of the couple’s use of the N-word against Williams. “It is simply not the first word someone reaches for even in the heat of an altercation unless using such language is a part of who that person is.”
When asked during the trial why he didn’t walk away from the couple’s taunts, Williams reportedly replied, “My name isn’t n—-r. … I don’t have to walk away. My grandfather had to walk away, my father had to walk away. My brothers had to walk away,” he said. “My mother named me Dirrick Williams, not n—-r.”
Williams said during Wednesday’s sentencing hearing that the attack has had long-term effects on his physical and emotional health.
“The lie Tricia Boewer told to the police and this court when she said I physically accosted her is more than a lie, more than an insult. It was a direct and deliberate attack on my life,” Williams said. “The court wants to know the impact she has in my life? Well, after calling me a n—-r several times, she employed the oldest trick in the book when it comes to interactions between white women and Black men,” added Williams, who was disappointed by Tricia Bower’s 60-day jail sentence.
“I cannot believe this woman, whose mouth began this problem, whose lie elevated this problem, who adversely perpetuated this problem into the lives of so many people, is walking away from this court not being held accountable to depth of which her evil demands,” Williams said that day.
She was immediately taken into custody after the sentencing. Noah Boewer was already in custody awaiting trial for an alleged attack on Tricia Boewer late last fall. She filed for divorce against him six weeks after that incident.
