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

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

A 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.