PORTLAND, Ore. — The suspect in a racist attack on a Southeast Portland food truck owner pleaded guilty to assault and hate crime charges on Friday.
Daniel Thomas Warren, 40, was arrested in July for the attack on Darell Preston, the owner of LoRell's Chicken Shack near Southeast 52nd and Foster. Preston was talking on the phone near his food truck when Warren attacked him from behind and shouted racial slurs during the beating, according to an attorney for Preston.
Cell phone video documenting the end of the attack shows Warren casually walking away after pulling Preston to the ground and stomping on him.
"What happened to me, I wouldn't have dreamed of in my darkest nightmare," Preston said, in part. "But what I've come to realize and truly believe, is that what doesn't kill you truly makes you stronger — if not stronger, well at least more determined. Because of this I am more determined to succeed than I have ever been before."
In June, Portland police identified Warren as a suspect in the attack, after circulating a mugshot and a still picture taken from surveillance footage just after the assault. He was later taken into custody and charged.
Warren pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and no contest to first-degree bias crime, Oregon's version of a hate crime. He will face sentencing later this month, the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office said.
Portland Police Bureau initially booked Warren on a single second-degree assault charge. After evidence in the case was presented to a Multnomah County grand jury, the jury returned a "true bill," approving an indictment of Warren on charges of both second-degree assault and first-degree bias crime.
This was not the first time Warren has been charged with assault in Oregon. He has an extensive criminal history and has been charged a number of times with assault, coercion, harassment and strangulation, among a number of other crimes.
