A jury in Okaloosa County, Florida, acquitted a man of a hate crime after he was accused of attacking an Asian American man, breaking his jaw and shouting racial slurs at him.
Allan Chandler Muller, 36, was found not guilty on Wednesday of aggravated battery causing bodily harm or disability, with a hate crime enhancement, after a three-day trial, according to court documents. The decision follows a 2020 incident in which Muller was accused of shouting racial taunts at victim John Mealor, knocking him unconscious before kicking him in the face.
“While we are disappointed in the verdict for Mr. Mealor’s sake, we respect the jury’s decision as the finder of fact,” Assistant State Attorney Salvador A. Gomez Jr. said in an email to NBC News. He declined to comment further on the case.
“It is a shame this case went this far, and that the only way we could resolve it was taking it to a jury trial,” T.S. Lupella, lead defense counsel for Muller, said in a press release.
According to a police report, Mealor and a friend were looking for his girlfriend near a harbor, at one point asking individuals on a docked boat if they had seen her. Muller, who was on the boat, allegedly told the victim he looked “sketchy,” the report said, and ordered them to leave before shouting racial slurs at Mealor, who is of Asian descent and blind in one eye.
“As the victim and witness walked away, the defendant called the victim a ‘cross eyed g—,’” the report said, referring to an offensive term used for Asian Americans. “The victim continued to walk away from the boat, and then heard the defendant call him a ‘lazy eyed g—.’”
Muller ran after Mealor and his friend, the report said. He knocked the friend to the ground before punching Mealor with a closed fist and knocking him unconscious, according to law enforcement.
The friend said in sworn testimony that the defendant kicked the victim in the face “soccer style” while he was already unconscious, according to the police report. The victim was taken to the hospital and had his jaw sewn shut for several weeks for an injury that “likely resulted in permanent disfigurement.”
A warrant for Muller’s arrest was issued in March 2021. According to the arrest report, the defendant hid in a fishing vessel, secured himself behind a door and refused to comply with deputies for an hour and a half before finally presenting himself to authorities. A deputy shocked Muller before taking him into custody, the report added.
But Muller’s attorneys said in a press release that the defendant, a crew member on a fishing charter boat at the time, was “struck first in the face” the night of the 2020 altercation, which led him to strike back.
“He saw two individuals that appeared suspicious, walking up and down docks near boats,” the release said. “Muller tried to walk them away from his and other docked vessels and back up the boardwalk. While doing so, an altercation began.”
Muller had previously pursued a “stand your ground” legal challenge, a Florida law that authorizes the use of deadly force in self-defense, but the motion was denied.
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