By Lookout Staff

August 28, 2024 -- A homeless man with a lengthy criminal record has been sentenced to nearly 24 years in state prison for a string of violent hate crimes in Santa Monica and Los Angeles last August, police officials said Wednesday.

Kevin Aamir Mumin, 37, was jointly charged for similar hate crimes targeting Latinos in both cities, including a worker outside a business on Main Street on August 20 and a City maintenance employee in Palisades Park two days later.

Mumin was arrested by LAPD the following day for multiple felony assaults with hate crime allegations, according to police.

He has prior arrests for robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, criminal threats, narcotics sales, solicitation, indecent exposure, sexual battery and battery, according to police.

In the first Santa Monica assualt, a Hispanic man "was attacked from behind as the suspect violently struck him with a large wooden stick on the back of his head," said Lt. Erika Aklufi, the Police Department spokesperson

"The assault was unprovoked, and the victim did not see the suspect," Aklufi said. "The victim sustained a large laceration to his head and required stitches behind his ear."

In the second incident, the victim, also a Hispanic man, said the suspect "walked directly towards him and attempted to punch (him) in the face, according to Aklufi.

"The suspect then threw a glass bottle towards the victim’s face but missed," she said.

SMPD detectives -- who had located surveillance video that captured the first incidnet --- were able to identify Mumin as the suspect in both attacks.

They also found that LAPD had issued a bulletin on Mumin for hate crimes in Los Angeles indicating he "specifically targeted and attacked Hispanics," Aklufi said.

Mumin was arrested by LAPD on August 23 for multiple felony assaults with hate crime allegations, police said. SMPD detectives filed the Santa Monica cases jointly with the LAPD incidents.

At trial this month, Mumin was found guilty of three counts of assault with a deadly weapon with extra penalties for causing "great bodily injury" and hate crime.

He was also convicted for one count of felony sexual battery stemming from one of the Los Angeles incidents.

The California penal code defines felony sexual battery as "touching an intimate part of another person while that person is unlawfully restrained" for the purpose of ""sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse."

Last Wednesday, Mumin was sentenced to 23 years and 8 months in state prison.

Anyone with additional information about this individual or investigation should call Det. Brian Spencer at (310) 458-8420 or Sgt. Shaun Cooney at (310) 458-8436.