Suspect in Brutal Texas Beating Sentenced

The first of three men charged in the brutal beating of Burke Burnett has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

The Dallas Voice reports that James Mitchell Laster, 33, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the October 2011 attack in Reno, Texas, that left Burnett, 26, with a gash on his left eye, stab wounds on his torso, and second-degree burns.

According to Burnett, his attackers yelled “vicious, hateful” antigay slurs as they punched him in the eye, gouged him with a broken bottle, and hurled him into a lit burn barrel.

Laster, who will serve eight years in a Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility , also pleaded guilty to a hate crime.

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