After a two-day preliminary hearing and other court proceedings, three men received prison sentences after pleading guilty to charges resulting from a series of attacks on six men outside of the San Diego LGBT Pride festival.

The six men were attacked in separate incidents, some with baseball bats and one with a knife, around 10:45 p.m. on July 29. The attacks took place during the course of several minutes behind the lawn bowling green in Redwood Circle in Balboa Park.

Following testimony from key witnesses and victims, James Carroll, 24, Lyonn Tatum, 18, and Kenneth Lincoln, 24, pleaded guilty to felony charges during the second day of the preliminary hearing, which took place on Sept. 22.

Initially, the three men and a 15-year-old juvenile pleaded not guilty at an arraignment hearing on Aug. 3.

The juvenile, who was also charged in connection with the attacks, pleaded guilty on Sept. 18 to three counts of assault with a deadly weapon with hate crime allegations. He also admitted to an allegation that he caused great bodily injury to one of the six victims. He faces up to 13 years in custody when he is sentenced on Oct. 4.

Superior Court Judge Frederick Maguire sentenced Carroll to 11 years in prison, Tatum to eight years and Lincoln to 32 months during a sentencing hearing on Sept. 25.

According to the terms of the plea agreement, Carroll admitted to committing a hate crime with the use of a baseball bat and pleaded guilty to a count of attempted murder and assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury. Carroll was previously convicted of a felony burglary in April.

Tatum admitted to committing a hate crime using a knife on one of the victims and pleaded guilty to counts of assault with a deadly weapon and assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury.

Albert Arena, the attorney who represented Tatum, said at the sentencing hearing he believed the attacks weren’t anti-gay but that alcohol “fueled this rampage.”

Lincoln pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and admitted he shaved Tatum’s head and tattooed his arm after the attacks in an effort to conceal his identity. Lincoln was on parole for a domestic violence conviction at the time of the attack.

During the sentencing hearing, Lincoln said he was only accepting the plea bargain because it was in his best interest to do so, even though he disagreed with the prosecution’s evidence and other witness testimony.

Paul Mullins, one of the victims who testified during the preliminary hearing that he was struck in the head twice with a baseball bat, said he was pleased with the plea bargains and thought the prison sentences are adequate for the severity of the crimes committed.

Deputy District Attorney Oscar Garcia said the prosecution team was satisfied with the plea bargain offers from the defendants.

“We wanted accountability for the violence inflicted upon the victims, especially the attempted murder charge,” he said. “… The number of years, we felt, is appropriate for the type of violence inflicted upon the victims.”

During the first day of the preliminary hearing on Sept. 21, Mullins testified that after being struck twice with a baseball bat, he called a 911 dispatcher and witnessed an attack on another man, who was sitting on a park bench adjacent to the Cabrillo Bridge.

“They were beating someone in the bushes,” Mullins testified. “… He used the word ‘faggot’ in the sentence. I am absolutely certain.”

Mullins then said he called out to the attackers that he was on the phone with the police and they were on their way. He said he then heard one of the attackers say, “Dude, we got to get out of here.”

Mullins, who said he was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher for more than 10 minutes, then followed the attackers near to the festival entrance gate and saw them run into a wooded area.

Dr. Stephen Kaminski testified he was the physician on call at Scripps Mercy Hospital the evening of the attacks when he tended to Oscar Foster, the most seriously injured victim. Kaminski said Foster was hit in the head and upper body 10 to 12 times with a baseball bat or similar object. He said Foster suffered a fractured skull and various facial fractures.

“When I saw him he was bleeding profusely from the face and mouth with what appeared to be a life-threatening potential compromise of his airwaves,” Kaminski said. “It’s one of the worst facial injuries I’ve seen…. I think he probably could have died from this, no doubt.”

Kaminski said Foster was in the intensive care unit for two weeks and in the hospital for at least a month.

Foster recently left the hospital after undergoing extensive facial reconstructive surgery, Garcia said outside the courtroom.

Also during the preliminary hearing, Jason Bemis, another victim, said he was stabbed twice in the back after he witnessed men beating another man with what looked like sticks.

“I started yelling for people to help,” he said. “I was very loud, very vocal.”

Bemis said a man came at him and pushed him down to the ground. “I thought he was just hitting me and then I felt something warm on my back. I felt blood.”

San Diego Police Department detective Kim Robinson testified in the preliminary hearing that during his investigation into the case, a girl told him she and two friends went to a party at an apartment located near Balboa Park on the evening of the attack. Robinson said the girl heard someone say they were going to “rob some people” in Balboa Park and that she witnessed a man taking a baseball bat with him as the group left the apartment. The girl later identified that person as Carroll. Robinson said she also identified Tatum as another person who was playing with a knife before leaving the apartment.

According to Robinson’s testimony, the girl said the men returned to the apartment and bragged about the fight they had just been in. She told Robinson that Carroll said he had just “smashed somebody in the head” and that he was motioning as if he had a bat in his hand. She also said Carroll made comments to the effect that he felt the person may be dead.