Pinkberry Founder Guilty in Homeless Man's Beating

Young Lee attacked Daniel Bolding with tire iron: jury
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 8, 2013 6:35 PM CST
Pinkberry Co- Founder Guilty in Homeless Man's Beating
People enter a Pinkberry store in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012.   (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

A co-founder of frozen-yogurt chain Pinkberry is guilty of beating a homeless man with a tire iron in 2011, a jury has found. Young Lee, 49, who will be sentenced in January, faces up to seven years in prison following a three-week trial. Panhandler Daniel Bolding reportedly showed Lee and others in a car, including Lee's fiancee, a tattoo featuring stick figures having sex. After driving away, Lee came back with a friend and beat Bolding.

The central issue in the case was whether Lee had been the one wielding the tire iron, the Los Angeles Times reports. "This case is not 'Who did it?'" a prosecutor said in closing arguments. "It's 'Who did what?'" A defense lawyer acknowledged that both sides agreed on "96% of what happened." The defense argued that Bolding had "flat-out lied" about what had happened: He told police it was Lee's partner who held the weapon, then changed his story in court. The judge said evidence indicated Lee had threatened witnesses and was a "threat to the community." Lee is no longer working with Pinkberry. (More Pinkberry stories.)

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