{"id":243764,"date":"2016-08-28T21:33:02","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T21:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=243764"},"modified":"2016-08-28T21:33:02","modified_gmt":"2016-08-28T21:33:02","slug":"man-who-threw-boiling-water-on-gay-couple-to-spend-40-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/08\/man-who-threw-boiling-water-on-gay-couple-to-spend-40-years-in-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Man who threw boiling water on gay couple to spend 40-years in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A jury has convicted an Atlanta truck driver accused of pouring boiling water over two gay men as the couple slept in February.<\/p>\n<p>The jury deliberated for about 90 minutes Wednesday before finding Martin Blackwell guilty of eight counts of aggravated battery and two counts of aggravated assault, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>Blackwell was sentenced to 40 years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>The 48-year-old wasn\u2019t charged with a hate crime because Georgia is one of five states that do not have hate crime statutes. An FBI spokesman told Reutersthat federal investigators are considering whether to charge Blackwell with a federal hate crime.<\/p>\n<p>Anthony Gooden had told his family he was gay shortly before the attack, which happened as Gooden slept on a mattress in his mother\u2019s living room next to Marquez Tolbert, according to the AP. The men had been dating for about six weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Blackwell, a long-haul trucker who stayed at the house when he was in town, came in and saw the two unconscious men lying next to each other.<\/p>\n<p>He went to the kitchen, pulled out a pot, filled it with water and set it to boil. Moments later, he poured the scalding water over the men, The Washington Post reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI woke up to the most unimaginable pain in my entire life,\u201d Tolbert said, sobbing frequently during his testimony, according to the AP. \u201cI\u2019m wondering why I\u2019m in so much pain. I\u2019m wondering why I\u2019m wet. I don\u2019t understand what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then Blackwell allegedly yanked him off the mattress and yelled, \u201cGet out of my house with all that gay,\u201d Tolbert recalled to WSBTV.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were stuck together like two hot dogs \u2026 so I poured a little hot water on them and helped them out,\u201d he said to police, according to the incident report. \u201c\u2026 They\u2019ll be alright. It was just a little hot water.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Blackwell claimed the two men were having sex when he poured water on them. Vickie Gray, a friend of Tolbert\u2019s, told the news station that\u2019s not true; they were asleep after a long day of work \u2014 not that the alleged attack would have been justified in any case, she noted.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_243783\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-243783\" style=\"width: 691px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-243783\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Tolbert.jpg\" alt=\"Marquez Tolbert cries as he testifies in the trial of Martin Blackwell on Tuesday in Atlanta. (John Bazemore\/AP).\" width=\"691\" height=\"494\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-243783\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marquez Tolbert cries as he testifies in the trial of Martin Blackwell on Tuesday in Atlanta. (John Bazemore\/AP).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Tolbert must now wear compression garments 23 hours a day for the next two years, Gray wrote in an email to The Post, and is attending weekly counselling and physical therapy sessions to deal with his emotional and physical scars. It\u2019s difficult for him to go outside because sunlight exacerbates the pain of his burns.<\/p>\n<p>Gooden, who was burned even more severely, was in a medically induced coma for several weeks, Gray said. According to his GoFundMe page, more than 60 percent of his body was burned, and he had to undergo skin graft surgery to repair damage to his face, neck, back, arms, chest and head.<br \/>\n&#8211;<br \/>\nBy: washingtonpost.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A jury has convicted an Atlanta truck driver accused of pouring boiling water over two gay men as the couple slept in February. The jury deliberated for about 90 minutes Wednesday before finding Martin Blackwell guilty of eight counts of aggravated battery and two counts of aggravated assault, according to the Associated Press. Blackwell was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":243782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Man who threw boiling water on gay couple to spend 40-years in prison - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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