Jury deliberating case of man accused in hate crime attack on Mexican family

Alan Dale Covington | Salt Lake County Jail

Defense attorney says client only struck after he was surrounded

SALT LAKE CITY — A jury began deliberating Wednesday afternoon in the hate crime trial for a Utah man accused of attacking a father and son at their Salt Lake tire shop because they are Mexican.

Prosecutors said there’s no question why Alan D. Covington appeared at Lopez Tires on Nov. 27, 2018.

He had passed by a vacuum repair shop and a hair salon before showing up at Lopez Tires with a metal pipe over his shoulder and a hatchet tucked in his waistband, announcing he was there to kill Mexicans before striking Luis Lopez, 18, and shattering his cheekbone, federal prosecutor Rose Gibson said Wednesday.

“In this country, it is against the law to attack someone and hurt them because of where they are born, because of where you think they are born. And that’s what this defendant did,” Gibson said in her closing argument. “It was a planned, vicious and brutal attack.”

She held the square-edge metal pipe over her shoulder in the same manner Covington allegedly did, telling jurors the evidence shows that he “had been hunting Salt Lake for Mexicans for days.”

An owner of a different auto shop testified that Covington had arrived at his business and made similar statements three days before the violence at Lopez Tires, but ultimately left after the shop owner clarified that he was Venezuelan and not from Mexico, Gibson said.

“To this defendant, all Mexicans are the same — hardworking families like the Lopezes, college kids like Luis — he makes no distinction,” Gibson continued.

Not so, said defense attorneys. The 51-year-old Covington, who is black, had no problem with Mexicans in general but took issue with a “Mexican mafia” or a cartel that he believed had kidnapped his family and killed his daughter.

They have maintained that what happened was not a hate crime.

Covington’s defense team emphasized that his ex-wife, who is of Mexican heritage, never believed he harbored any prejudice against Mexicans, although prosecutors countered that his past thoughts may not reflect his more recent mindset.

While Covington’s statements at the tire shop were inappropriate and wrong, they weren’t motivated by hate, defense attorney Spencer Rise said.

Moreover, Rice said surveillance video of the confrontation as it spilled onto a sidewalk shows a very different story. In court on Wednesday, he played slowed-down footage from a neighboring bank, pointing out that his client is shown backpedaling before being surrounded by Luis Lopez, his father Jose Lopez and his uncle Angel Lopez.

“Mr. Covington hit them because he had been surrounded and there was nowhere else to go,” Rice said. “The government here would only have you focus on those facts that are the most outrageous, that elicit the most sympathy.”

Covington, who is charged in U.S. District Court with three hate-crime counts, chose not to testify in the nearly weeklong trial. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Last week, Jose Lopez testified that he was getting ready to sit down for a lunch of chicken soup with his son that morning when they heard a man yelling outside.

A man wielding a metal pipe shouted that he wanted to kill Mexicans and said Luis Lopez had killed his daughter. As the father tried to get him to leave and back away, Luis Lopez retrieved a metal pipe from inside the shop, but dropped it when Covington began striking him, the father said. Lopez later had surgery for a shattered cheekbone, while his father sustained bruising to his back.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill has said the case played a “huge role” in bringing about a stronger 2019 state law on hate crimes. The law enhanced the penalties for offenders who commit a crime based on ancestry, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, national origin, race, religion or sexual orientation.

This story will be updated.

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