After Orange County prosecutors appealed his original five-year sentence, a man who chased, threatened and yelled racial slurs at a pregnant Black woman will be resentenced, facing a maximum sentence between 38 years to life in state prison.
Tyson Theodore Mayfield was initially sentenced in 2019 after he chased the woman from a Fullerton bus stop, threatened to kill her unborn baby and stole her backpack. At the time, Mayfield accepted a court offer to admit to committing a hate crime and pleaded guilty to making criminal threats and violating someone’s civil liberties.
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He was again convicted Monday of making criminal threats and committing a hate crime after Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer appealed his previous sentencing, calling it an “abuse of discretion” by former Orange County Superior Court Judge Roger B. Robbins.
Robbins previously removed one of Mayfield’s prior strike convictions, despite objection from prosecutors. A California appeals court overturned that decision in 2020, making Mayfield a three strike defendant and requiring he face a harsher sentence under the state’s Three Strikes law.
Spitzer previously criticized the sentencing, saying Mayfield was a dangerous racist who had a swastika and SS bolt tattoos. In a victim impact statement presented to the court, the victim also expressed fear for the safety of herself and her family and hopes that Mayfield would face a longer sentence.
Mayfield was previously convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in 2005 and mayhem in 2008, both in Orange County. Mayfield was also convicted of mayhem in 2005, leading to a nine-year sentence in state prison after he made racist comments about a woman and her boyfriend after they refused to give him change at a gas station. He said racial epithets and punched the man repeatedly in the face.
He was also convicted of one misdemeanor count of hate crime assault in 2017 after punching a Filipino and Turkish man multiple times and calling him a racial slur, leading to a one-year sentence in county jail.
After the appellate court’s decision, the case returned to trial court.
Mayfield’s new sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 29.
