An Atlanta guy will spend 40 years Globe Inform in prison after he became located guilty this week in 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 turned into 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 becomes 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 straight away reply to People’s request for comment.) Prosecutors have stated that Blackwell stuffed the biggest pot in his home with water at the night of the attack and set it to boil earlier than tossing it on Gooden and Tolbert, who has been napping and who were 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 with the aid of 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 become hospitalized for about a month, such as weeks in a coma, and the latter changed into hospitalized for 10 days. Both guys had numerous surgical procedures, according to the AP – and Each testified at Blackwell’s trial.
Georgia does not have a hate crime law, but the FBI has said it opened a hate crime research. (The popularity of that probe turned into no longer without delay clean, and an FBI spokesman in Atlanta did no longer immediately respond to Human beings’ request for comment.) Blackwell’s protection attorneys did 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 premeditated, 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 now not at once respond to Humans’s request for remark. After the decision, Tolbert instructed newshounds he felt “justice became served,” consistent with the AP. Tolbert had earlier spoken out about the assault on local Tv, breaking 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 whilst she spoke to WSB-Tv in March, saying, “He’s now not human. He got hatred in his coronary heart, and God’s gonna cope with him.”