An Atlanta guy will spend 40 years Globe Inform in prison after he became guilty of a “soulless” anti-homosexual attack on a couple this spring when he threw boiling warm water on them as they slept, consistent with a couple of reviews. Martin Blackwell was convicted of 10 counts – two counts of aggravated assault and eight counts of irritated battery – in the February assault on Anthony Gooden and Marquez Tolbert, in step with the Related Press, Atlanta Journal-Charter, and Washington Submit.
He was found guilty on Wednesday, according to court data. The jury deliberated for about ninety minutes after the brief trial, in keeping with the AP. (The Fulton County District Attorney did not immediately reply to People’s request for comment.) Prosecutors have stated that Blackwell stuffed the biggest pot in his home with water on the night of the attack and set it to boil earlier than tossing it on Gooden and Tolbert, who had been napping and who had been dating about a month, in keeping with the AJC and AP. The pair stayed with Gooden’s mother, who was dating Blackwell, consistent with the AP.
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“You have been soulless, malicious, and a violent individual [during the attack],” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk said to Blackwell Wednesday earlier than sentencing him, in line with the AJC. Prosecutors argued that Blackwell became stimulated by a particular kind of hate: homophobia. Tolbert testified at trial that Blackwell grabbed him after the attack and stated, “Get out of my house with all that homosexual,” in keeping with the AP. Gooden and Tolbert’s injuries have been intense, in step with reviews: The former became hospitalized for about a month, such as weeks in a coma, and the latter changed to hospitalized for ten days. Both guys had numerous surgical procedures, according to the AP – and Each testified at Blackwell’s trial.
Georgia has no hate crime law, but the FBI has said it opened a hate crime research. (The popularity of that probe became no longer clean delay, and an FBI spokesman in Atlanta no longer immediately responded to Human beings’ requests for comment.) Blackwell’s protection attorneys no longer present any proof at trial or name any witnesses in keeping with the AP. However, they argued that the assault became reckless instead of deliberate, in keeping with the AP.
“It’s no longer approximately hate. It is about the vintage-college way of life, old-school questioning,” Attorney Monique Walker instructed jurors, consistent with the AP. According to the AP, Blackwell’s defense argued he changed into motivated through an experience of disrespect for the victims’ conduct in the home – a declaration the prosecution disregarded. It was now not without delay clear if Blackwell intends to attract any of his convictions, and Walker did currently not at once respond to Humans’ request for remark. After the decision, Tolbert instructed newshounds he felt “justice became served,” consistent with the AP. Earlier, Tolbert spoke out about the assault on local Tv, breaking it down as he defined it.” I’m ecstatic,” Tolbert stated Wednesday, consistent with the AP. Tolbert’s mom, Kim Foster, had sturdy words for Blackwell when she spoke to WSB-Tv in March, saying, “He’s now not human. He has hatred in his coronary heart, and God will cope with him.”
