US man gets 40yrs for scalding gay couple
AP on August 25, 2016, 11:30 am
A judge has sentenced a Georgia man to 40 years in prison for throwing scalding water on a gay couple sleeping in an apartment, leaving them with severe burns that required surgery.
Jurors deliberated for about 90 minutes before finding Martin Blackwell, 48, guilty of eight counts of aggravated battery and two counts of aggravated assault in the February attack on Anthony Gooden and Marquez Tolbert.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk said the evidence was overwhelming and that Blackwell had behaved in a soulless and malicious way. He noted that it ``takes a long time'' for a pot of water to boil.
``You had so many outs where the voice of reason could have taken over,'' the judge told Blackwell, who had faced up to 80 years in prison.
Prosecutors said it was a vicious, premeditated attack. Tolbert testified that after pouring hot water on them, Blackwell grabbed him as he jumped and screamed in pain and told him: ``Get out of my house with all that gay.''
Georgia doesn't have a hate crime law. The FBI said in March that it had opened a hate crime investigation, but spokesman Kevin Rowson said on Wednesday that the agency isn't commenting on that probe.
Blackwell's defence lawyer acknowledged that he poured water on the pair, but asked jurors to find that it was reckless conduct.
``It's not about hate. It's about old-school culture, old-school thinking,'' Monique Walker told the jury.
The defence didn't call any witnesses and didn't present any evidence. Blackwell, who remained stoic throughout the trial, did not take the stand. He showed no reaction when the verdict was read.
Blackwell was a long-distance truck driver and lived with his girlfriend, Kim Foster, at her sister's apartment in College Park when he was in town. Gooden, who is Foster's son, and Tolbert had been dating about a month and were sleeping at the apartment February 12 after working an overnight shift when Blackwell dumped scalding water on them.
Blackwell's lawyer said her client felt the young men's behaviour was disrespectful and that there were certain things people sharing a house shouldn't do.
Gooden, 24, spent about a month in the hospital, two weeks of that in a medically induced coma, and Tolbert, 21, spent 10 days in the hospital. Both men suffered severe burns that required multiple surgeries and skin grafts.
They both testified Tuesday that they suffered great pain and were unable to perform even the most basic everyday tasks - eating, bathing and using the bathroom - without help when they got out of the hospital.
``I'm ecstatic. I think justice has been served,'' Tolbert told reporters after the verdict.
He was nervous before the trial, but once he testified about what had happened he felt a weight lift, he said.
