Connect with us

Texas Man’s Sentence Reduced From 30 to 18 Years for Brutal Anti-Gay Hate Crime

Published

on

Jonathan Gunter, One of Two Men Who Viciously Attacked Jimmy Lee Dean in Dallas in 2008, Will Be Eligible for Parole Next Year

Jimmy_Lee_Dean.jpgA man who helped commit one of the most brutal anti-gay hate crimes in recent memory in Dallas has received a reduced sentence of 18 years in prison. 

Jonathan Russel Gunter, 39, was one of two men who attacked and robbed Jimmy Lee Dean (photo, left) in July 2008 in an alley behind the city’s largest LGBT nightclub. 

Gunter and Bobby Jack Singleton, 36, yelled anti-gay epithets as they pistol-whipped Dean with a 9mm Glock handgun, then kicked him repeatedly in the head, face and body as he lay unconscious on the pavement. Dean was hospitalized for 10 days after the attack and suffered permanent injuries. 

In 2013, five years after the attack, Dean told me: “I can’t even stand for more than 20 minutes at a time, because my equilibrium is still off. There’s still no sense of smell. I haven’t smelled anything for five years.”

Singleton, believed to have caused most of Dean’s injuries, was sentenced by a jury to 75 years in prison, and Gunter initially received 30 years. However, Gunter later filed a habeas petition alleging ineffective counsel, and this week, he received a reduced sentence of 18 years, meaning he’ll be eligible for parole in 2017.

In this 2008 TV news report on the crime, Dean says, “as long as they get their 25 to life, that’s all that matters.”

Dean, who moved out of state after the attack and has said he will never forgive Gunter and Singleton, declined to comment on the reduced sentence. 

Mick Mickelson, who represented Gunter on the habeas petition, said his client’s original defense attorney, Charles Humphreys, admitted under oath that he was unprepared for the sentencing hearing in 2009. Mickelson said Humphreys neglected to introduce any evidence related to Gunter’s long history of mental illness. 

“He had been in and out of mental institutions all his life,” Mickelson said, adding that his client suffered from bipolar disorder and addiction. “It doesn’t make him innocent. It doesn’t excuse what he did, but the jury kind of needed to know the background.” 

Mickelson also noted that Singleton was the “ringleader” in the attack. 

“The guy that just really went berserk on the victim was Singleton,” he said. 

Mickelson said Dean’s sexual orientation wasn’t a consideration in plea negotiations with the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, which led to the reduced sentence.

Gunter and Singleton were convicted of aggravated robbery, but the case wasn’t prosecuted as a hate crime because the charge is already a first-degree felony, meaning there is no sentencing enhancement available under Texas law. 

Gunter has a gay brother, and Mickelson said he doesn’t think his client is homophobic. 

“He’s never said said anything derogatory or derisive about gay people,” Mickelson said. “I think he wanted Singleton’s approval, and I think Singleton is a much tougher guy. My impression is Singleton probably has a deep-seeded homophobic fixation.” 

A representative from the DA’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. This story will be updated if they do. Last year, LGBT advocates criticized the Dallas DA’s office for agreeing to a plea deal in which a man received 10 years of probation and no jail time for the murder of a transgender woman. 

 

There's a reason 10,000 people subscribe to NCRM. You can get the news before it breaks just by subscribing, plus you can learn something new every day.
Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

Carville Predicts Trump Will Get a Complete and Total ‘Whipping’

Published

on

Prominent political strategist James Carville served up some strong language and colorful remarks about President Donald Trump on Super Bowl Sunday.

On his Politicon streaming show, Carville predicted that Trump would get a complete and total “whipping,” and will be “disgraced.”

“You can knock down the East Wing. You can s — — all over the Kennedy Center. It is not gonna do any good, because the country hates you,” he declared. “They literally cannot stand you.”

“My recommendation for everybody that loves the United States, every patriotic American, and every person that is disgusted by a putrid behavior of the United States government, join the party,” Carville continued. “Because it’s coming to an end.”

READ MORE: ‘Interests of Justice’: Pirro Signs DOJ Motion to Toss Bannon Indictment

“We’re not just gonna win, people. We’re gonna win in ways that you can’t imagine,” the political consultant, author, and a Democratic pundit added. “And not only are we gonna win, we’re gonna watch these sorry, slimy people in an effort to try to save themselves — disgrace themselves, disgrace their families, disgrace their children, their grandchildren, their great grandchildren and everything else.”

Carville also denounced “spineless jellyfish” U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), while praising “these courageous athletes in Italy” at the Olympic Games.

“You see courageous people in the streets of Minneapolis. You’re gonna see courageous people, about a million, show up at the next No Kings rally.”

Carville said he doesn’t “live in an ivory tower,” but rather, walks around and talks to people: “I see the disappointment on faces of people that, for all I know, may have voted for Trump.”

“I’m looking at election results,” he added. “And what I’m watching, entire people that have had an accomplished life, that have had a life of some pride, become Lindsay Graham, the most pliable, malleable person in the history, maybe of U.S. politics.”

READ MORE: Fascism Expert Warns Trump Could Invoke Emergency Powers to Cancel the Election

“We’re gonna beat these people,” Carville vowed. “Like, you can’t even believe what is getting ready to happen to them. And then they’re gonna all be disgraced by history.”

“But you know what you can’t steal?” Carville asked. “You cannot steal the heart of the American people. You can’t steal our traditions. You can’t steal our love of progress — and we may make a mistake, but we’re gonna correct it, and you’re gonna get corrected with the mistake.”

He also vowed that “we’re gonna enjoy ourselves in November” when Trump is “disgraced, and all of the acolytes around him will be disgraced even more.”

READ MORE: ‘Toast’: Latino GOP Strategist Warns ‘Republicans Are Gonna Lose So Big in November’

Continue Reading

News

‘Interests of Justice’: Pirro Signs DOJ Motion to Toss Bannon Indictment

Published

on

Longtime Trump ally and former White House senior counselor to the president, Steve Bannon, is trying to get his 2022 conviction on two counts of contempt of Congress overturned — and now he has the support of Trump’s Department of Justice to back him up.

“DOJ is trying to help Steve Bannon erase his conviction for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee,” reports Politico’s Kyle Cheney.

Cheney noted that the DOJ’s motion “has no career prosecutor” listed, only U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. He also reported that the case had been headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The government has determined in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice,” the motion reads.

Bannon served four months in prison and was released in October 2024. He was found guilty by a jury on two counts of contempt of Congress, the Associated Press reported, “one for refusing to sit for a deposition with the Jan. 6 House Committee and a second for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race.”

He referred to himself as a “political prisoner” when he began serving his sentence.

READ MORE: Fascism Expert Warns Trump Could Invoke Emergency Powers to Cancel the Election

 

Image via Shutterstock

Continue Reading

News

Dems Ignoring ‘Biggest Political Issue’ of 2028 Race: Strategist

Published

on

Democrats are ignoring the “biggest political issue” that will define the 2028 elections — an issue with long-range consequences — a prominent political strategist warns.

Artificial intelligence — and its effects on the workforce and the economy — is a phenomenon about which some Republicans have started to sound the alarm, says Kamala Harris’s 2024 deputy campaign manager, Rob Flaherty. But the Democratic Party needs to be better prepared, he writes in a New York Times op-ed.

“Being told you have no agency over a force that will reshape your job prospects, your community and your family’s future is a recipe for backlash,” writes Flaherty. “Democrats shouldn’t dismiss that anger. We should be the party that channels it and does something about it.”

“The coming A.I. revolution threatens the urban professional class that constitutes a central pillar of its political coalition — which already seems too small to win a national election,” he warns. “Democrats have a chance to unite the unemployed 25-year-old software engineer in Tucson, Ariz., and the underemployed middle-age autoworker in Detroit in a coalition big enough to win nationally and locally.”

READ MORE: ‘Toast’: Latino GOP Strategist Warns ‘Republicans Are Gonna Lose So Big in November’

Flaherty points to the chief executive of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, who “has predicted that artificial intelligence could displace half of all entry-level white collar jobs within five years. Already, layoffs are on the rise. Recent college grads are struggling to find work. And even for those of us fortunate enough to be employed, our retirement savings are increasingly dependent on the fortunes of a small handful of high-growth tech companies.”

Democrats have an opening with A.I., he says. “Americans feel pessimistic about A.I. Polling indicates that they are much more concerned than excited about the increasing use of A.I. in their lives.”

The 2028 elections, “set against the backdrop of discontent with A.I., will provide an opportunity to campaign against Big Tech’s excesses and a Republican Party that has enabled them.”

Flaherty sees A.I. as an opportunity to reimagine America’s “social bargain.” Who’s in charge? Who benefits? Who are we as a nation? He says these are the questions Democrats should be asking — and “letting voters know how we answer them.”

Democrats, he adds, need to “monopolize” the issue of artificial intelligence, “lest we risk losing voters we take for granted.”

READ MORE: Fascism Expert Warns Trump Could Invoke Emergency Powers to Cancel the Election

 

Image via Shutterstock

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.