Truck driver attacks Black man at Oregon Arby’s, feds say. Now he’s going to prison
A Colorado man was sentenced to prison on Thursday over the unprovoked stabbing of a Black man at an Oregon Arby’s, federal officials said.
Nolan Levi Strauss, 27, was sentenced to 16 years in federal prison and five years of supervised release after he pleaded guilty to one count of a “hate crime involving an attempt to kill,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
“This defendant is being held accountable for his brutal and racially-motivated attack against a Black man carried out because of the color of his skin,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Racially motivated attacks have no place in our society.”
The attorney for Strauss said Strauss committed the crime because he was off his medications and suffering a “severe manic episode with psychotic symptoms.”
It was in December 2019 when Strauss entered a Pilot Travel Center and saw a Black man walk into the Arby’s restaurant. He didn’t know the man, 49-year-old Ronnell Tyrone Hughes, the news release states.
He walked up behind Hughes, who was sitting in a booth waiting to speak with a restaurant manager about his job application, court documents show.
Strauss stabbed him twice in the neck. With blooding gushing from his neck, Hughes got away from Strauss and ran to the other side of the restaurant before collapsing to the ground.
Arby’s employees attempted to perform first aid on the blood-soaked Hughes before he was flown to a Boise hospital for emergency surgery.
Strauss was detained by a maintenance worker with a belt after stabbing Hughes. He told the worker he did it because he “was Black, and I don’t like Black people,” according to the indictment.
Strauss was indicted in September 2020 and pleaded guilty to the hate crime charge in June of this year.
Hughes flew from Jacksonville, Florida, to Eugene to speak at Strauss’ sentencing hearing this week, The Oregonian reported.
It was also the first time Hughes had seen Strauss because he was attacked from behind.
“I don’t have any enemies and for someone to just sneak up on me and try to take my life from me ... I’m angry, somebody I don’t even know,” Hughes told the courtroom, the news outlet reported.
Strauss’ lawyer, Robert Hamilton, said his client has suffered mental health issues since he was a child and has a “lengthy documented mental health history,” according to a sentencing memorandum.
And now Strauss has been taking medication, which Hamilton said has been effective.
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 1:37 PM with the headline "Truck driver attacks Black man at Oregon Arby’s, feds say. Now he’s going to prison."
