Greater than two and a half years in the past, Christian Hornburg was attacked by a person with a steel pipe at a Santa Monica practice station, and he nonetheless is struggling bodily and mentally from the incident.
The person who assaulted him, Job Taylor, yelled racial slurs as he allegedly stomped on Hornburg’s head. He was charged with tried homicide, assault with a lethal weapon, and hate crime enhancements – however a decide mentioned he did not have to face trial.
In March, Choose Lana Kim granted Taylor diversion, saying, “The entire purpose this diversion was created was in essence to deal with individuals who have a psychological well being analysis.”
CBS Information California Investigates has been following the case since, wanting into diversion, the place a defendant is obtainable remedy and training as a substitute of serving jail time.
Hornburg mentioned he helps the concept of diversion, however not for the person who threw him to the bottom and almost took his life, leaving him wheelchair certain.
“I bought a mind bleed … I bought a few lumps in my head the place he hit me … kicked me within the head,” he mentioned.
Los Angeles County District Lawyer Nathan Hochman says Taylor attacked two different Black individuals the identical day.
In accordance with court docket data, footage from a police physique digicam confirmed Taylor continued his racist rant till he was arrested.
“It completely was a hate crime,” Hochman assured. “The truth is, Mr. Taylor, when he was interviewed, mentioned he had a specific difficulty with black individuals.”
Hochman defined {that a} decide honored a request for diversion on this case. “These instances ought to have resulted in years of jail time.”
In LA County, the Workplace of Diversion and Reentry supplies supportive housing via both psychological well being diversion or probation.
This isn’t a locked facility. It is a facility at any second of any day that he can stroll out of and so they will not cease him,” Hochman mentioned.
Taylor has been recognized with schizoaffective dysfunction, bipolar illness, and an opiate use dysfunction.
Regardless of efforts to find out diversion program completion charges versus those that select to stroll out, precise numbers couldn’t be confirmed from the Workplace of Diversion and Reentry officers.
The workplace did report that in 2024, there have been probably between 2,700 to 2,800 individuals in this system, and that they misplaced observe of round 400 to 500 individuals, and someplace between 100 to 200 individuals returned to jail.
Hochman estimates there are about 24 % who didn’t full this system, whereas estimates from ODR present about 17%. “That could be a failure price that’s extremely critical in our society,” Hochman mentioned.
Hochman argues for the sufferer. “The entire level of the legal justice system is that it must ship justice to victims like Mr. Hornburg. However, on this case, it completely did not,” he mentioned.
A Rand research discovered that Fast Diversion Program contributors are 3 times much less more likely to be rearrested than these incarcerated, whereas the Vera Institute of Justice discovered “individuals who full diversion are 43 % extra more likely to acquire employment.”
Troy Vaughn runs the non-profit Los Angeles Regional Reentry Partnership. “Diversion is meant to deal with the basis causes like trauma, psychological well being, and poverty,” Vaughn mentioned “It is not about avoiding accountability. It is about accountability that works.”
In accordance with psychological well being diversion statutes, a defendant charged with sure crimes, reminiscent of homicide and rape, is ineligible for diversion.
Taylor’s public defender mentioned he “is housed with Black inmates. His bunkmate is a black particular person… He doesn’t have animosity in direction of black individuals.”
However in help of their opposition to Taylor’s movement for diversion, the DA cited Taylor’s medical data, which indicated a jail psychologist who interviewed Taylor famous his “hostile and aggressive behaviors in direction of custody employees.”
Final month, the California Courtroom of Appeals granted the DA’s petition to vacate Choose Kim’s order for diversion, saying no proof prompt that Taylor wouldn’t pose an unreasonable threat of hazard to public security if granted diversion.
In the meantime, Hornburg has been residing in a care facility with lasting accidents. “I had just a little tendon and it broken the muscle mass in my wrists. I’ve bought vertigo, he mentioned. “I assume from not strolling, my legs have gotten weak, and my steadiness is off. I’ve fixed complications every single day.”
Taylor will now face trial on the unique costs, together with tried homicide with a hate crime enhancement. His pretrial hearings are set for December. If convicted, he faces life in jail.
