A man seen in surveillance video punching an elderly Asian woman more than 100 times and stomping on her body in Yonkers, New York, has been sentenced to more than 17 years in state prison, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

“Today we close a chapter on one of the most violent and shocking hate crimes that we’ve seen in Westchester County,” Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah said in a news conference.

Tammel Esco, 42, pleaded guilty in September to assault in the first degree as a hate crime based on an agreement with prosecutors, Rocah said. He was sentenced to 17.5 years in state prison and will be subject to five years of post-release supervision, she said.

Graphic surveillance video of the incident posted by Yonkers police shows the brutal March 11 attack, which took place after the 67-year-old woman, who is of Filipino descent, walked past Esco. Prosecutors said he called her “Asian b*tch” shortly before the attack.

After she fell to the ground, Esco punched her more than 100 times, stomped on her body repeatedly and spit on her, according to the felony complaint.

The woman suffered brain bleeding, and multiple facial fractures, among other injuries, prosecutors said.

The House passed the $1.9 trillion bill, overwhelmingly thanks to Democrats. Not a single Senate or House Republican voted for the bill, and one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, voted against it.
The relief package is groundbreaking: It sends $1,400 stimulus checks to close to 90% of American households, directs billions to small businesses and schools, pours necessary resources into vaccine distribution, extends unemployment benefits and offers parents an unprecedented child allowance -- a cash benefit for families with children. No, it's not everything progressives wanted. But it's the most ambitious cash assistance plan I've seen in my lifetime.
It didn't come sooner, though, because Republicans were in charge until seven weeks ago. And Democrats should remind voters of exactly that. Trump and the GOP passed tax cuts in 2017 that disproportionately helped the wealthiest, but when the pandemic hit in 2020, they were out to lunch. Public health messaging was garbled and inconsistent. The President spread dangerous and deadly false information. When the Republican Party did put forward a stimulus bill that sent out cash payments and provided much-needed support for small businesses and communities, Democrats were on board: They supported the bill because it was the right thing to do for a country in crisis.
But now, a year into a deadly pandemic that has killed more than 520,000 Americans -- more than all the wars of the past 100 years combined -- and left hundreds of thousands of more without jobs, homes or basic stability, Republicans are refusing to come to the rescue.
Democrats have, which is why Americans have gotten the additional help we needed. That's the message Democrats need to hammer home as they take well-earned credit for what they've achieved here.


Taking credit isn't just so Democrats can pat themselves on the back; it's so the public understands how and why this happened. Many Americans do not pay close attention to politics, and don't necessarily tie the decisions made in Washington to the realities of their day-to-day lives. Democrats need to connect those dots for them, loudly and repeatedly, so that voters can understand what's at stake in elections and what both parties truly stand for.