WHITE PLAINS – A Yonkers man was sentenced on Tuesday to 17 ½ years in state prison for the March violent hate crime against a 67-year-old Asian woman in Yonkers.
Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah said Tammel Esco, 42, who pled guilty in September to assault as a hate crime, has been held in the county jail without bail since his arrest by Yonkers Police on March 11, the day of the attack.
Shortly after 6 p.m. on the date of the attack, Esco yelled at the woman, who is of Filipino descent, that she was an “Asian bitch.” He then approached her from behind as she entered the vestibule of her apartment building in Yonkers and punched her in the head, knocking her to the ground. He continued to punch her more than 100 times, repeatedly stomping on her upper body with his construction boots, and then spit on her.
Esco and the victim lived in the same building.
“Today we close a chapter on one of the most vicious and shocking hate crimes we’ve seen in Westchester County,” said Rocah. “This is a case that has traumatized not only the victim and her family, but also her neighbors, the Westchester community, and the broader Asian American and Pacific Islander community.”
