PLANO, Texas — A North Texas woman has been convicted on hate crime charges in a racist attack on women of South Asian descent outside of a restaurant in 2022, officials announced Tuesday.
Esmeralda Upton, 59, of Plano, pleaded guilty to four state hate crime charges: Three misdemeanor assault charges and one misdemeanor charge of terroristic threat, with all four charges falling under the Texas hate crime enhancement statute, according to the Collin County District Attorney's Office.
The hate crime enhancement was added to the charges on allegations that Upton "intentionally selected the victim because of Upton's bias and prejudice against the victim's race and national origin," the district attorney's office said in a release.
Upton was sentenced to two years of community supervision probation and 40 days in the Collin County Jail. She was also fined $500 for each charge.
The incident involved four victims and happened Aug. 24, 2022, outside of a Sixty Vines restaurant in Plano.
“As Americans, we should all be able to enjoy our Constitutional liberties, free and secure from this type of racially motivated assault," Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis said. "Indeed, America is the only nation on earth defined more by its ideals than by race or ethnicity."
According to the arrest affidavit, the group of women told police that Upton approached them and began yelling at them to go back to India and that "Indians are ruining this country." This is when the group of women started recording Upton, the affidavit said.
Police said the group of women told officers Upton hit them, which she admitted to and the viral video also shows. The affidavit also said Upton continued to make racially-charged comments throughout her conversation with the officer on scene.
According to the affidavit, Upton told police she became agitated when the group called her a "white woman." Upton originally stated to police she was a "first generation" American, but later said she was "second generation." She told police that she is "Mexican-American" and "Native-American" and lives in a $1.5 million home.
Upton admitted to police she struck one of the women because they were "videoing and saying all of this (expletive) that I wasn't doing. And that's what they do. Just like the Black people," the affidavit said.
The affidavit also said one of the three videos recorded by the group of women shows Upton saying, "I'm going to blow your (expletive) brains out" and "I swear to God I am going to shoot your (expletive)."
According to the affidavit, after being asked for her identification, Upton asked police if they'd like to see her license to carry a firearm as well. The officer asked Upton if she was "carrying" at the time, and she said she wasn't, but stated that her firearm was in her vehicle.
Police referred to Upton in the affidavit as "very agitated and uncooperative."