Hate Crime Defendant Pleads Not Guilty in El Verano Assault

A Santa Rosa teen pleaded not guilty in Sonoma County Superior Court today to the alleged gang and hate crime robbery and assault of a gay 18-year-old Sonoma man last month.

Francisco Emeliano Serna, 19, is charged with three counts each of assault likely to cause great bodily harm and robbery at the El Verano Elementary School in Sonoma. Serna is being held under $475,000 bail and a preliminary hearing date will be set Wednesday.

Sonoma police also arrested a 17-year-old boy Friday in connection with the alleged gang and hate crime assault and robbery.  When the 17-year-old suspect was arrested Friday, he was in possession of the 18-year-old's cell phone, Sackett said. He was booked into juvenile hall and is being held under no bail.

Deputies from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office, which provides police services to Sonoma, responded to a report of a gang fight at the school on Riverside Drive around 10:45 p.m. on March 29, Lt. Bret Sackett said.

Two youths who were in a parking lot of the school when deputies arrived said when they gathered there to drink and smoke marijuana, some other youths were already there, Sackett said.

After drinking and smoking together, the 18-year-old man showed up to join his friends, Sackett said. As he walked through campus looking for them, he was jumped by a group of suspected gang members, Sackett said.

During an interview, deputies learned the 18-year-old victim is gay, but the victims and witnesses did not suggest his sexual orientation was the motivating factor in the assault, Sackett said. Some of the victims and witnesses reportedly heard the suspects yell gang terms, Sackett said.

The following day, two of the victim's friends and a witness went to the sheriff's Sonoma Valley substation and suggested the 18-year-old's sexual orientation might have led to the attack.

Following the 18-year old's mother's appearance before the Sonoma City Council meeting on April 1, and during interviews the following week, the sheriff's office's violent crimes investigations unit identified one of the primary suspects, and determined the suspects did make sexually derogatory statements before and during the assault of the 18-year-old victim, Sackett said.

Sackett said it's believed the assault was motivated in part by the victim's sexual orientation. Sheriff's detectives are identifying other suspects and anyone with information has been asked to call (707) 565-2185.

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