A federal judge handed down a decade-long prison sentence today to an Oklahoma City man who admitted to brutally beating a restaurant employee solely because of the victim’s race.
Braden Birdsong, 28, appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Bernard Jones in the Western District of Oklahoma, where he was ordered to serve 120 months in federal prison. The sentencing follows Birdsong’s earlier guilty plea to a federal hate crime violation stemming from an unprovoked assault in the summer of 2023.
According to court documents and statements made during the hearing, the incident occurred on August 25, 2023. The victim, identified in court records as D.G., was working at a local restaurant and cleaning the parking lot when Birdsong approached him…