Blackwell was sentenced to 20 years for the aggravated battery charges and 20 years for the aggravated assault charges.
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Tolbert told Project Q Atlanta that they never had problems with Blackwell before.
A jury has convicted a Georgia man accused of pouring boiled water on a gay couple as they slept. “They’ll be alright, it was just a little hot water”.
The man who poured boiling water on a same-sex couple because he didn’t approve of the relationship was sentenced to 40 years in prison Wednesday afternoon.
According to the Fulton County DA’s office, Martin Blackwell was found guilty on 10 counts of aggravated assault and aggravated battery.
Martin Blackwell, a 48-year-old from Atlanta in the USA, was sentenced after a jury found him guilty on Wednesday. Prosecutors contend the attack was premeditated. “Martin pulled me up and said, ‘Get out of my house with all that gay.’ I couldn’t stop screaming”.
The FBI said it had opened a hate crime investigation in March, but spokesman Kevin Rowson said Wednesday that the agency isn’t commenting on that probe, the AP reported.
Blackwell’s attorney, Monique Walker, presented a paper-thin argument that acknowledged that Blackwell poured boiling water on the pair and deserves retribution, but she is asking jurors to consider it reckless conduct.
“It’s not about hate”. But if he didn’t like the sentencing and decided not to take the deal, he would go to trial. He showed no reaction when the verdict was read.
The incident occurred on February 12 when Blackwell came home to the apartment he lived in with his girlfriend Kim Foster and her sister.
Prosecutor Fani Willis scoffed at the idea. Blackwell then walked toward Tolbert, grabbed him by the arm and pulled him through the apartment and out the door, she said.
Tolbert says he hopes to one day forgive Blackwell for what he did. He selected the biggest pot in the house, filled it with water and waited for it to boil. “And it’s a felonious act”, Willis said.
Gooden spent almost four weeks in hospital, including two weeks in a medically induced coma. Both men were severely burned and needed to undergo multiple surgeries and skin grafts.
Both men testified about the difficulty they had performing even the most basic tasks such as eating and using the bathroom, upon their release from the hospital.
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“I’m ecstatic”, Tolbert told reporters.
