Two sentenced in
New Mexico gay bashing

Two teens who took part in the brutal kidnapping and beating of a gay teenage boy after a July 2006 house party in Edgewood, N.M., were sentenced Thursday, according to FreeNewMexican.com. Cecily Gonzalez, 17, pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and false imprisonment and will spend one year in the custody of the Children, Youth, and Families Department. Gonzalez wasn't eligible for a hate-crime enhancement of an extra year because she was sentenced as a juvenile.

Uriah Smith, 18, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping and was sentenced to four years in prison. State district judge Michael Vigil initially sentenced Smith to three years in prison plus an extra year for the hate-crime enhancement. However, Smith attorney Steve Aarons said he would appeal the sentence because juveniles, even if they're sentenced as adults, are not covered under the statute. So Vigil changed the sentence and gave Smith four years. Prosecutor Donna Dagnall said that everyone involved identified Smith as the leader of the attack.

Charges are still pending against two other men involved in the beating, William York, 21, and Leroy Segura, 21.

The four assailants are also reported to have kidnapped a woman from the same party, who was held in a camper and beaten while the gay man was tied up and brutalized for hours, allegedly to turn him straight. According to Dagnall at the time the four were charged, the male victim suffered bleeding on the brain and a concussion as well as facial lacerations and bruising.

While his physical injuries have healed, the victim's mother told FreeNewMexican.com, the emotional scars have not. Harassment that had already begun in high school for the teen became even worse after his beating. "People were coming up to him and saying 'gay' and 'queer,'" his sister added. "No one should be punished for the way they are." The teen stopped attending his school and in an unfortunate turn of events was later diagnosed with Huntington's disease, a syndrome that causes degeneration of brain cells.

"I still feel all this pain," his mother told the Web site. "It's been a living nightmare."

The victim did not attend Thursday's hearing. (The Advocate)