Man Sentenced to 22-Year Prison Term for Attacking Boy in Long Beach Restroom

LONG BEACH, CA -- A felon was sentenced Friday to 22 years in state prison for following a 13-year-old boy into a restroom at a Long Beach restaurant last year and attacking him before another customer intervened.

Herbert Laurence Harris, 48, pleaded no contest to one felony count each of kidnapping and child abuse stemming from the attack last March, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Harris followed the teenager into the restroom, put him in a chokehold and started to drag him into a restroom stall when a customer walked in and intervened, said Deputy District Attorney Kelly Kelley.

Harris was arrested soon afterward and has remained jailed since then.

Along with the felony charges, Harris admitted that he was convicted of making criminal threats and battery by gassing in 2014, according to the District Attorney's Office.

-- City News Service, photo via Shutterstock