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BOULDER, Colo. — He was singled out and brutally beaten for no other reason than his disability. Now, a Vietnam veteran from Boulder has the justice he has been waiting for.

Though Xakon Con Passion had hoped his case would send a message by leading to the state’s first disability-motivated hate crime conviction, prosecutors said a plea agreement ensures his attacker will spend more time behind bars.

On Thursday, with the hate crime charge no longer on the table, Xakon argued for the stiffest sentence possible: 10 years in prison for 62-year-old Jerry Dawson, who attacked him, unprovoked, in July.

“I have very little left, physically, of the man I worked so hard to be,” Xakon told the judge.

The disabled Vietnam veteran, who uses an electric wheelchair after suffering nerve damage from his service in Vietnam, was outside a Boulder bank when Dawson began punching him in the head and fractured his skull.

“Xakon once fought for his country and now there are many days I see him fighting for his life,” said Paul Solari, a friend of Xakon’s who spoke during the sentencing.

Despite his injuries, Xakon said the most difficult part was Dawson’s apparent motivation.

“He made it clear when he yelled out to me that I’m a cripple,” Xakon said, adding Dawson demanded he “Stand up and fight him.”

“That’s what he said to me and to others that were there,” Xakon said.

Dawson has a long history of alcoholism and violent behavior, and argued that he was too drunk to know what he was doing.

“I am sincerely sorry,” Dawson said during the sentencing. “For the hell that I put him through.”

Dawson pleaded guilty to a felony assault charge, which carried a stiffer sentence than the hate crime charge, which carried a maximum of three years.

“The charge itself was not what the defendant pled to, but the spirit of this case was absolutely about the protection of at-risk adults,” Boulder County Deputy District Attorney Jane Walsh said.

Though Dawson received the most he could under the agreement, Xacon said he won’t forget the hate behind it.

“To me, there are some things you can just never apologize for,” he said. “You just can’t.”