On Friday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Henry J. Hall sentenced Pinkberry co-founder Young Lee to seven years in prison, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The 49-year-old businessman received the maximum sentence after he was convicted last year for beating Ronald Bolding, a homeless man, with a tire iron in 2011.

While driving in his Range Rover, Lee, with his fiancée and other women, pulled up to a 101 Freeway ramp in East Hollywood where Bolding had been panhandling. Bolding began flashing his tattoo featuring a stick-figure couple having sex to the women in Lee's vehicle.

Lee drove off but came back at a later time with a friend and began to beat Bolding; an action Hall said was both "horrendous" and "fairly merciless." Lee's friend has not been identified and prosecutors believe him to be in Korea.

Attorney Phillip Kent Cohen requested that his client be evaluated for probation because of "unusual" circumstances, but Hall denied the motion.

"What this case boils down to at the end of the day, is nothing more or nothing less than a savage attack on a defenseless person," Hall said during Friday's sentencing hearing.

Hall said the trial could have taken a much more different path had a group of people not stepped in to intervene in the attack.

"We might be here talking about a wholly different set of facts," Hall said.

Bolding filed a personal injury lawsuit against Lee after suffering a broken left arm and numerous lacerations to his head.

Additionally, Lee threatened a witness, but on Friday, Deputy District Attorney Bobby Zoumberakis said he didn't plan to continue that investigation.

Jieun Kim, Lee's wife, was in attendance at the sentencing to also speak to the judge.

"It hurts me deeply when my child, who just started speaking, asks for his dad," she said, while wiping away tears. "I beg you to not separate our family, to keep our family together."

Related