(CNN) — A man who beat a transgender woman for using the women’s restroom at an Oregon park was found guilty of a hate crime and sentenced to six years in prison.

Fred Constanza, 37, of Blackfoot, Idaho, was convicted of first-degree bias crime, second-degree assault and harassment for the attack last summer on Lauren Jackson.

Jackson, 29, was visiting Agate State Beach Park, near Newport, Oregon, on Aug. 24. She had used the women’s restroom, then went to a grocery store to get breakfast supplies. When she returned to the park — more than an hour after using the restroom — Costanza confronted her, multiple witnesses told Newport police.

Costanza hit Jackson 10 times while grabbing her hair to keep her from fleeing, police said. She suffered multiple fractures to her jaw as well as a broken skull.

Constanza fled the scene with his wife and was arrested when he returned to the park later that day. He had remained in jail until his weeklong trial began on Jan. 22. A jury convicted him, and on Friday, Circuit Judge Sheryl Bachart sentenced Costanza to 70 months in prison and ordered him to pay restitution to Jackson.

During the sentencing hearing, Bachart referred to phone calls that Costanza made from jail in which he repeatedly insulted Jackson to family members. She called his comments “a window into a dark soul.” He contended he was exercising his free-speech rights.

Jackson told TV station KATU that she had been in Oregon only 10 days when the attack occurred. She had left Salt Lake City shortly before, and had planned to begin her life as a woman in Portland.

Jackson said Constanza approached her, yelling about her being a woman. “He kept saying, ‘Oh, you think you’re some kind of lady?’” she told the Oregonian.

He “blindsided” her, she said, repeatedly punching her until a witness intervened.

“Do you have to take away somebody else’s rights in order to protect someone’s rights? … I don’t feel safe using the men’s restroom. And other people don’t feel safe having me in the women’s restroom,” she said.

After being released from the hospital, Jackson went through with her plan to settle in Portland.

“I believe that people are inherently good and that I live in a kind world,” she said. “I don’t think I did anything wrong, and I don’t want to live in fear. I came here searching for community and I found it. ”