AUGUSTA – A man convicted of robbing and beating a basketball star from a rival high school is going to prison.

A judge sentenced Craig Dauksis of South China to 31/2 years in prison Jan. 31. He suspended the rest of the 12-year term.

Dauksis was 18 and a high school senior at Erskine Academy when he and another man assaulted Brian Gerrity in an Augusta parking lot in May 2000.

Gerrity was a senior at Maranacook Community School at the time and had completed an outstanding basketball season. He now plays at Bates College.

The victim and assailant had competed against each other on the basketball court, and Gerrity’s father said the attack was premeditated

“It was too well-coordinated an attack to have been random,” said Bruce Gerrity, who told the judge his son continues to have problems with the arm that was injured in the attack and has lost some of his hearing.

Deputy District Attorney Alan Kelley called the attack “brutal, unprovoked and swift,” and said it could be characterized as a hate crime.

“This is a case where [Gerrity] was attacked because he was everything that Craig Dauksis was not,” Kelley said.

According to court records, Dauksis and Tyler T. Moulton jumped Gerrity as he was leaving the Kennebec Valley YMCA. Gerrity suffered a concussion, an injured arm and a broken eardrum. His silver necklace was taken.

Dauksis was found not guilty of aggravated assault, but guilty of assault and robbery.

Moulton pleaded no contest more than a year ago and was found guilty of aggravated assault and robbery. He was sentenced to six years in jail with all but one year suspended.

At Dauksis’ sentencing hearing in Kennebec County Superior Court Thursday, Dauksis apologized to the Gerrity family. “Many nights I sit in my room wishing this had never happened,” he said.