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Man Sentenced For 40 Years For Throwing Boiling Water On Sleeping Gay Couple

A homophobic Georgia man was recently sentenced to 40 years in prison for throwing boiling water on a sleeping gay couple.

As HelloBeautiful previously reported, in February, Martin Blackwell attacked his girlfriend’s son Anthony Gooden, 23, and his boyfriend Marquez Tolbert, 24, scalding them with water yelling “Get out of my house with all that gay.” Tolbert was in the hospital for 10 days, while Gooden was there for a month, which including being in a coma for two weeks.

The two suffered second and third-degree burns throughout 60 percent of their bodies, including their neck, back, arms and chest. They also received several painful surgeries and numerous skin grafts.

Blackwell’s attorney tried arguing that her client wasn’t being hateful or malicious, and framed the attack as a lone lapse of judgment, the New York Daily News noted. Yet, the judge wasn’t hearing it.

According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Judge Henry Newkirk told Blackwell, “You were soulless, malicious and a violent person on February 12. You had so many outs where the voice of reason could’ve taken over.”

Once hearing the sentencing, Tolbert told reporters, “I’m ecstatic. I think justice has been served.”

Dallas Shooter Micah Johnson Reportedly Suffered From PTSD After Serving In Afghanistan

Dallas Shootings Interfaith Memorial Service

Source: Gary Miller / Getty

While the Conservative Right may have tried to unsuccessfully blame the Black Lives Matter Movement for the Dallas police shootings, documents show that the shooter with struggled with PTSD and other mental health issues.

According to the Associated Press, newly released documents from the Veterans Health Administration state that Micah Johnson, the Army reservist who shot and killed five Dallas police officers in July, showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and had been treated for anxiety, depression and hallucinations after serving in Afghanistan in 2014. The documents also stated that Johnson told doctors that he had nightmares after seeing fellow soldiers being blown in half.

Also, Johnson once told his doctor, “I try to block those out, but it is kinda hard to forget.”

Once he returned home, Johnson said he was suffering from frequent panic attacks, was growing increasingly distrustful of others, wasn’t comfortable around large crowds and was drinking heavily. However, doctors concluded that Johnson was “not acutely at risk for harm to self or others,” and that the patient was “not felt to be psychotic by presentation or by observation.”

[WATCH] White Caller Admits He’s Prejudiced. Black C-SPAN Guest Helps Him Do Better

When one thinks of C-SPAN, the words “powerful” and “passionate” don’t really come to mind, but a recent segment on race has gone viral–and for all the right reasons.

Last week on the network’s “Washington Journal,” Heather McGhee, president of Demos Action, was a guest on the show where she talked mostly about policy issues. But then one caller dialed in to ask McGhee a personal question about he can overcome the biases that he has for people for color. Gary asked:

“I’m a white male, and I am prejudiced. The reason it is something I wasn’t taught but it’s kind of something that I learned.

“When I open up the papers, I get very discouraged at what young black males are doing to each other, and the crime rate.

“I understand that they live in an environment with a lot of drugs ― you have to get money for drugs ― and it is a deep issue that goes beyond that, but when, I have these different fears, and I don’t want my fears to come true.”

Taken a little off guard, McGhee answered back with patience and empathy and stressed that to even ask these questions, is a step in the right direction.

“Thank you so much for being honest and for opening up this conversation because it is simply one of the most important ones we have to have in this country,” she told him, adding that admitting he is prejudiced and wants to overcome it is “one of the most powerful things that we can do right now in this moment in our history.”

McGhee then suggested that Gary “could allay his fears by getting to know black families, not forming opinions about people of color from the evening news, read African-American history and, if he’s religious, to join a black church,” the Huffington Post noted.

Such great advice. We hope that Gary wasn’t the only one paying attention.

The grand return of the Melanin Awards amplifies and honors the finest Black-owned beauty brands with honest reviews, and discusses the evolution of beauty in Hip-Hop culture.