SAN DIEGO -- A Stockton man was in custody Friday, facing multiple battery counts, in connection with an allegedly race-motivated attack on a fellow trolley rider last month.

State agents took Morrise Raylee Janise, 27, into custody at his K Street house on a parole violation on Dec. 21, San Diego police reported.

Evidence found at the home linked Janise to the assault on the commuter tram, SDPD public information Officer Monica Munoz said.

The victim, a white man, alleged that Janise, who is black, directed ethnic insults at him while they were riding the light-rail line from Logan Heights to Lincoln Park the evening of Nov. 27.

"As the trolley continued traveling eastbound with several passengers on board, Janise became more agitated and began to pace inside the trolley," Munoz said. "Janise had a radio, and he turned the volume up while making racially motivated comments."

Janise allegedly jumped the victim as the trolley pulled into a Euclid Avenue transit station, knocking him to the floor and punching him in the face and head until security personnel intervened.

Following a scuffle with the officers, the assailant managed to escape, despite having been doused with pepper spray, Munoz said.

A citizen who saw a news report on the incident later came forward and provided information that led detectives to identify Janise as the alleged attacker.

So far, however, police have found no witnesses who can corroborate the victim's hate-crime allegation, Munoz said.