Man pleads guilty to hate crime in stabbing of man

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — A Colorado man accused of stabbing another man in a racist attack at an Oregon truck stop has pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime.

Nolan Levi Strauss pleaded guilty Thursday to a hate crime involving an attempt to kill, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Oregon.

On Dec. 21, 2019, a man was sitting in a booth at an Arby’s restaurant in a Pilot Travel Center in Ontario, Oregon, waiting to talk with a manager about a job, court documents said. Strauss entered the building, approached the man from behind and stabbed the man twice in the neck, documents said.

The man tried to take the knife, and managed to prevent Strauss from stabbing him again, documents said. The victim broke free from Strauss’s grip and ran across the restaurant before collapsing, documents said. The man was flown to Boise, Idaho for emergency surgery.

A maintenance worker used a belt to secure Strauss’s hands behind his back and waited for police, documents said. Strauss told the worker that he doesn’t like Black people, documents said.

Strauss was arrested and admitted he was trying to kill the man because was he was Black, documents said.

Strauss faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.