SANTA ANA, Calif. – A Garden Grove man has been charged with a hate crime in connection with repeatedly punching a 71-year-old man working in a Huntington Beach liquor store. The defendant is accused of making a disparaging remark about immigrants.

Ralph Stanford Davis III, 51, of Garden Grove has been charged with one felony count of inflicting injury on an elder adult, one felony violation of civil rights causing violent injury, and a felony hate crime enhancement. He is also charged with unlawful tampering of a vehicle for spitting at and punching the vehicle of another customer outside of the store.

Davis is scheduled to be arraigned today in CJ1. He is currently being held at the Theo Lacy Facility in Orange.

He faces a maximum sentence of seven years in state prison if convicted on all counts.

On December 12, 2021, Davis is accused of making derogatory statements about the clerk’s nationality before punching him in the face as the clerk attempted to close the store’s security gate.

“This clerk should be able to earn a living without living in fear of being randomly attacked because of his nationality,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “I have made the prosecution of hate crimes a priority. My Hate Crimes Unit will do everything it can to hold these haters accountable and send a strong message that engaging in hate-motivated violence is a crime – and it will be prosecuted.”

Deputy District Attorney William Ha of the Hate Crimes Unit is prosecuting this case.