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League of the South Member Tyler Davis Takes Plea for Beating Man After 'Unite the Right'

A member of the neo-Confederate group League of the South has taken a plea for his role in the beating of DeAndre Harris in the hours after the racist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Tyler Watkins Davis, of Middleburg, Florida, entered the Alford plea to a charge of malicious wounding Friday morning in Charlottesville Circuit Court. The plea means Davis acknowledges there’s enough evidence to convict him while not admitting guilt.

Davis was one of four people charged with attacking Harris, 21, in the hours after “Unite the Right” turned violent on Aug. 12, 2017.

Davis is scheduled for sentencing Aug. 27.

Three others, 20-year-old Daniel Patrick Borden, Jacob Scott Goodwin, a 24-year-old neo-Nazi sympathizer from Ward, Arkansas, and 34-year-old Alex Michael Ramos of Jackson, Georgia, have pleaded guilty or been convicted of the attack on Harris.

Goodwin is serving an eight-year sentence in state prison. Ramos was sentenced in August to six years in prison. Borden, from Mason, Ohio, is serving three years and 10 months in prison for his role in the attack.

Police say a group of white supremacists attacked Harris in a parking garage and beat him with pipes, wood slabs and poles.

The FBI and the Clay County Sheriff’s Office picked Davis up a year ago at his home in northeast Florida.

Davis, who is heavily tattooed, can be seen in a video of the attack wearing a boonie hat and all-black clothing with a League of the South logo on the shirt. Two others in the video remain unidentified.

Davis is a charter member of the D.B. Coleman chapter of the Florida League of the South based in Middleburg.

The “Unite the Right” rally also saw the arrest of 21-year-old James Alex Fields, of Maumee, Ohio, who is serving life plus 419 years in prison after being convicted of murder in the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Police say Fields rammed his car into a crowd, killing Heyer.

Fields also faces federal hate crime charges related to the incident.

Photo illustration by SPLC

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