Sentencing in Racial Attack

Twenty-one year old Carlos Colbert, paralyzed from the neck down, faced his attackers in a San Diego courtroom Wednesday, reports CBS News Correspondent Bill Whitaker.

The five white men who broke the black Marine's neck during a drunken bias attack at a party last year were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to nine years.

At the sentencing, Colbert's mother, Marie, was inconsolable. "They continued to stomp on him and kick him. It's hurtful. It's very hurtful," she sobbed.

The five men were arrested after a Memorial Day party that turned into a drunken brawl. Colbert, a Marine lance corporal, says he was trying to help a young woman when he was knocked to the ground, punched and kicked. All the while his attackers chanted vile racial slurs. Doctors say the severity of Colbert's injuries mean he'll never walk again.

Judge Frederic Link sentenced ringleader Jesse Lawson to nine years. Lawson has admitted the attack was racially motivated. Trenton Solis, 18, Robert Rio, 23, Jed Jones, 21, and Steven Newark III, 18, received one year in prison and five years on probation.

It was not enough for Carlos Colbert. "How can you be satisfied when I'm going to have to live with this the rest of my life," he said.

Melvin Colbert, the victim's father and a Vietnam veteran, called for the toughest sentence possible. "He was down and you kicked him and stomped him, and said 'Kill the nigger! Kill the nigger!' Racism and hate," he said confronting his son's attackers.

Colbert was one of a few blacks who attended the party at the home of a fellow Marine from Camp Pendleton. At least 100 people packed the small house at Santee, 20 miles from San Diego.

A fight broke out in the front yard, and the attackers punched and kicked Colbert while shouting racial slurs, said prosecutor Craig Rooten.

The parents of some of the attackers recently went on a radio talk show, saying their sons were coerced into confessing that the crime was racially motivated. They said it really was just a drunken brawl.

Sitting in his wheelchair, Colbert rejected an apology from his attackers saying it was for all the wrong reasons. "I don't blame y'all for what you did because y'all were taught to hate, but you're apologizing because you got caught. You don't care about me."