Man Gets 16 Months in Prison in Attack on Native American

A Huntington Beach man was sentenced to 16 months in prison Monday after admitting his role as an accessory in the near-fatal stabbing of a Native American man by two white supremacists.

Shannon Martin, 23, was charged with retrieving the knife used in the Feb. 3 attack on George Mondragon, 20. As part of Martin’s plea in West Municipal Court, a separate conspiracy charge was dismissed.

Two other people have been charged with the attack on Mondragon, who was slashed as many as 27 times near a Huntington Beach lifeguard tower after the group approached him and asked if he believed in “white power,” authorities said.

When Mondragon started to run, he allegedly was punched by Michael Steven Eckert, 17, of La Palma. Police said Mondragon then was stabbed by another defendant, 20-year-old Erik Anderson, of Huntington Beach.

Investigators described Anderson and Eckert as self-professed white supremacists who allegedly had accosted other minorities that night. Anderson is charged with attempted murder and commission of a hate crime. Eckert is charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit a hate crime and is being tried as an adult.

Martin was accused of taking the knife from a bush near the tower, but authorities said he did not participate in the attack.