A Lakeside man pleaded guilty Friday, Jan. 4 to committing two separate hate crime incidents: an October 2006 assault on a man whom he mistook to be gay and a July 2007 assault on a black man, causing brain damage.

El Cajon Superior Court Judge William McGrath will sentence Timothy Michael Caban to 17 years in state prison on Feb. 1, said Deputy District Attorney Leon Schorr, adding that Caban will have to serve 85 percent of his 17-year term.

Along with his guilty pleas, Caban, admitted to, in October 2006, injuring a man, whom he mistook to be gay because, he said, he hates gay people. He also admitted he assaulted the black man out of racial hatred, and acknowledged that he had committed “great bodily injuries” to both men.

Police linked Caban to the October assault, which took place in a Lakeside bar, after having arrested him in the July incident.

In the October incident, Caban struck a man and dislocated his shoulder after asking him if he was gay.

Schorr said Caban was drinking in a bar in 2006 when he saw two men talking with each other. The victim, who was there with his wife, was talking with a male acquaintance when Caban approached them and asked if they were gay.

“Would it matter if we are?” Schorr quoted the victim as saying before the attack.

The prosecutor said the two men kept talking, but Caban hit the man who had spoken to him from behind and called him “a faggot.” The man suffered a dislocated shoulder and cuts, and medics transported him to a hospital.

In the July incident, which took place outside a different Lakeside bar, the victim, 44, suffered a skull fracture. He is still not able to speak because of extensive brain damage, needs 24-hour care, and now lives with his brother, said Schorr.

Schorr said the man is undergoing speech and physical therapy. “He’s still in pretty bad shape,” said Schorr. “Unfortunately for one victim, the injuries will last longer than 17 years.”

Caban was ordered to stand trial for both attacks. Neither victim was called to testify in the preliminary hearings. The prosecutor instead called sheriff’s deputies and others who witnessed the incidents.

Caban’s attorney could not be reached for comment. Caban remains in the George F. Bailey Detention Facility without bail.