Man sentenced 5 years for injuring Marine outside of IHOP

Aldrin Brown – City News Service

A man who threw a rock that seriously injured one of five Marines during a confrontation outside an IHOP restaurant in Palm Springs was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison.

Brandon Fenton was found guilty Nov. 13 of assault with a deadly weapon resulting in great bodily injury for the May 6, 2011, run-in at the restaurant at 471 S. Indian Canyon Drive. The jury also found true a sentence-enhancing allegation of causing great bodily injury.

During Fenton’s sentencing hearing at the Larson Justice Center in Indio, defense attorney Greg Johnson argued that his client should be granted probation. He cited the defendant’s lack of a serious criminal history — Fenton has a prior drug possession conviction — and called the circumstances surrounding the crime “unusual.”

“This is not a violent man,” Johnson said. “He does not have a violent past.”

The jury acquitted Fenton of a more serious charge of premeditated attempted murder and of being a felon in possession of a firearm, involving the shooting of another of the five Marines during the confrontation.

Several witnesses testified the shooter was Harrison Jamal Hall, a fugitive who was with Fenton that day. Hall, now 32, is also charged with two counts of attempted murder with use of a firearm and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He jumped bail in late 2013.

Deputy District Attorney Steven Morgan argued that the two defendants regularly went out together and that Fenton knew of Hall’s violent past and penchant for gunplay. Fenton’s aggressive behavior fueled the dispute, culminating in him throwing the rock that left the victim with fractures to his nose and orbital socket — injuries that required multiple surgeries, the
prosecutor said.

“This is a person who has pursued a violent lifestyle and ended up committing a crime,” Morgan said.

Before the sentence was rendered, Fenton told the court that he used poor judgment. “I should have never been out with (Hall) — period,” he said. “I put myself in a situation that I should never have been in.”

In deciding against releasing Fenton on probation, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Anthony R. Villalobos described the case as “unfortunate” and said the rock-throwing was an act of substantial violence. “Even though it’s not the most common weapon, it is a dangerous weapon,” the judge said.

Fenton was given credit for 684 days of time he’s already served in jail, and his lawyer estimated he would spend about 2 1/2 years behind bars before becoming eligible for parole.

On the day of the violence, Fenton and two friends got into a dispute at about 2:45 a.m. with a table of Marines who they believed had mistreated a woman and taken her keys. The dispute spilled into the parking lot, where the Marines and defendants exchanged epithets and appeared prepared to fight.

At one point, Hall went to his vehicle to retrieve a gun, witnesses testified, and Fenton threw the tennis ball-sized rock at one of the men. Hall allegedly fired shots that wounded one of the Marines in the foot, then stood over that service member and fired at least one more shot that left a large grazing wound on the back of his head.

When police arrived at the eatery, they found that “several males had been involved in an altercation outside in which one suspect discharged a firearm at a group of males,” said Palm Springs police spokesman Mike Kovaleff, then a sergeant.

The two wounded Marines were transported to a local hospital for treatment of non life-threatening injuries, Kovaleff said. Hall and Fenton fled in a pickup truck that was found at a home in the southern part of Palm Springs, where they were arrested by police.