Colorado Man Gets 10 Years Following Brutal Attack Against Disabled Vietnam Veteran

Man who attacked disabled Vietnam veteran gets 10 years 
KDVR News 
By Kent Erdahl 
MARCH 31, 2016

“Xakon once fought for his country and now there are many days I see him fighting for his life,” said Paul Solari, a friend of Xakon’s who spoke during the sentencing.

BOULDER, Colo. -- He was singled out and brutally beaten for no other reason than his disability. Now, a Vietnam veteran from Boulder has the justice he has been waiting for.

Though Xakon Con Passion had hoped his case would send a message by leading to the state’s first disability-motivated hate crime conviction, prosecutors said a plea agreement ensures his attacker will spend more time behind bars.

On Thursday, with the hate crime charge no longer on the table, Xakon argued for the stiffest sentence possible: 10 years in prison for 62-year-old Jerry Dawson, who attacked him, unprovoked, in July.

“I have very little left, physically, of the man I worked so hard to be,” Xakon told the judge.

The disabled Vietnam veteran, who uses an electric wheelchair after suffering nerve damage from his service in Vietnam, was outside a Boulder bank when Dawson began punching him in the head and fractured his skull.
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