Pfc. Demetry L. Randall was sentenced to 14 years confinement, which was reduced to 12 years in exchange for his guilty pleas for multiple assaults on other U.S. soldiers. (Seth Robson / Stars and Stripes)

YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — A Camp Coiner soldier was sentenced Monday to 12 years in prison for multiple assaults on other soldiers, one of whom was left severely disabled.

Pfc. Demetry L. Randall, of the 305th Quartermaster Company, pleaded guilty to maiming Spc. Eric Huff Jr. of Lancaster, Calif., on Dec. 10 by punching, kicking and stomping on his head.

Huff, of Headquarters Headquarters Company, 17th Aviation Brigade, suffered “neurological damage, reduced muscular strength and reduced bodily coordination and mobility,” according to court documents.

Randall also pleaded guilty to conspiring with Pvt. Henry C. Hall and Pvt. Rodney A. Brackens, also of the 305th, to assault Huff; assaulting two other soldiers; underage drinking; and using disrespectful language to a warrant officer.

Brackens was sentenced to 10 years confinement earlier this month for his role in the attack on Huff. Hall’s court-martial is set for early fall.

Randall had been in pre-trial confinement for 134 days. He elected to be tried by Army Col. Patrick Parrish, a judge with the 6th Judicial Circuit.

The soldier told the court that the first of the three assaults in which he was involved occurred Aug. 14 after a drinking session in his barracks.

He said he and a group of soldiers went to Itaewon, a bar district near Yongsan Garrison, where they encountered other U.S. soldiers chanting “white power” in reference to a television skit by comedian Dave Chappelle.

In a confrontation between the two groups, Randall stomped and kicked a soldier who already had been beaten unconscious. Randall said he was angry at the soldier for calling him “the N word.” He later refused to show his military identification card to a warrant officer, whom Randall said he swore at and called a “redneck.”

Randall testified that on Dec. 9 — after another drinking session in the barracks, at Yongsan’s Navy Club and at the UN Club in Itaewon — he and Hall assaulted a pair of soldiers walking on Yongsan Garrison. Hall reportedly punched one soldier; Randall punched the other and knocked him out.

Returning to their barracks, Randall said, he and Hall met with Brackens and devised a plan to “punch someone.”

“Hall and Brackens said they wanted to hit somebody and I felt the same way,” Randall added.

In the early hours of Dec. 10, they knocked on Huff’s barracks door. When Huff opened the door, Hall punched him. Then Randall and Brackens took turns punching and kicking him, Randall said.

Huff’s father, Eric G. Huff Sr., of Lancaster, Calif., testified his son was in bad shape when he saw him at 121st General Hospital in Seoul the day after the assault.

“His face was scratched, his eyes were swollen shut, there was a lot of skin missing off the side of his face and there was a boot print on his face. He had skin missing off his arms and tubes everywhere. I tried to speak to him but he wasn’t responding. He had to be fed for the first three days and he could hardly swallow,” Huff Sr. said.

After five days, the soldier was transferred to a hospital in California, where he stayed for three weeks. He was then assigned to a military hospital at Fort Lewis, Wash., Huff Sr. said.

Before the assault, his son enjoyed going out with friends and playing basketball. Now he cannot run, can barely raise his left arm above his shoulder and spends much of his time watching television and sleeping, said Huff Sr. His son also suffers from memory loss, blurry vision and headaches.

Spc. Huff, 22, entered the courtroom in dress uniform. The tall, slender soldier answered questions quietly and paused often to remember details of what happened to him.

On the night of the assault, all he remembered was answering the door and someone saying something about a girl, he said.

“I don’t remember what happened next. I remember waking up in hospital and seeing my mom and dad. I tried to get up but I couldn’t,” he said.

Much of his days are now spent receiving therapy, he said. “I have headaches from time to time. I don’t go out much anymore except maybe to the grocery store. I’m really tired and I don’t feel like doing anything,” he said.

On Monday, Randall apologized to the Huff family, blaming his crimes on anger, an alcohol problem and the death of his grandmother last year.

“I was stupid, not evil,” he said.

Prosecutor Capt. Jack Ko said the court should not believe Randall’s claims he was sorry because he failed to do anything immediately after the assault and had lied to investigators about his involvement. “He thought he would get away with it and that is exactly why he did it,” Ko said.

Randall’s lawyer, Capt. Mark Kerr, said his client was neither the instigator of the assaults he was involved in nor the worst of Huff’s attackers.

Parrish sentenced Randall to 14 years confinement, reduction to the Army’s lowest rank, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and a dishonorable discharge. Under a pre-trial agreement, Randall’s confinement was reduced to 12 years and several other charges were dropped in exchange for his guilty pleas, not calling witnesses outside of a 15-mile radius of Yongsan Garrison and agreeing to testify at Hall’s upcoming court-martial.

Pfc. Demetry L. Randall was sentenced to 14 years confinement, which was reduced to 12 years in exchange for his guilty pleas for multiple assaults on other U.S. soldiers. (Seth Robson / Stars and Stripes)

A handcuffed Pfc. Demetry L. Randall stands outside the courthouse at Yongsan Garrison, South Korea, during a break in his court-martial Monday. (Seth Robson / Stars and Stripes)