harrisonsdream
11-15-2006, 03:30 PM
Girl whose kiss triggered brutal Spring attack testifies
By JOE STINEBAKER
Associated Press
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HOUSTON — A girl whose kiss triggered the savage beating of a Hispanic teen testified today that when she told David Henry Tuck about the incident, his only reaction was to punch the victim in the face.
"Tuck hit him first. He didn't say anything. He just hit him in the face," said Danielle Sons, who was 12 when she attended an unsupervised party at her house where she, her brother Gus, Tuck, the victim and another teen drank and took cocaine and Xanax.
Sons said when the victim kissed her, "I kind of backed away ... He was kind of messed up. I knew he didn't mean anything."
Nevertheless, she told Gus Sons and the other boys about it, triggering a four- to five-hour attack in which the victim was stripped, kicked, beaten and sodomized with plastic pipe before the attackers stood him against a fence and poured bleach all over him.
Tuck, 18, is charged with aggravated sexual assault in the attack.
The victim, who was hospitalized for more than three months, is expected to testify later today. If convicted, Tuck could face from five to 99 years or life in prison.
The other person authorities say participated in the attack, Keith Robert Turner, 17, is set to go to trial next month.
Danielle Sons, who is half Hispanic, described the attack in grisly detail, including the racial epithets and shouts of "white power" that she said Tuck uttered while he beat the teen.
She testified that the victim "moaned really loud" as Tuck kicked the plastic patio-umbrella pole into the teen's rectum.
"He looked kind of crazy," she said. "He kicked it. He just did it once really far, and really hard, too."
Gus Sons testified on Tuesday that he could only watch the attack.
"He said, 'If you were white, you would be helping me,'" the 16-year-old Sons said of Tuck, whose trial began Tuesday and continues on Wednesday. Sons described Tuck as a "racist."
Defense attorney Chuck Hinton described Gus Sons as an "armed, crazed drug dealer" and tried to imply to jurors that Sons' testimony could not be trusted because his memory had been affected by the drugs he took.
Sons said Tuck and Turner dragged the victim into the backyard and kicked him with their steel-toed boots and punched him.
"He doesn't like anybody who is not white," Sons told the jury, which includes five black women and one Hispanic man.
In his opening statement, prosecutor Mike Trent called Tuck a "neo-Nazi" who "espouses beliefs by violent white supremacist groups."
Hinton and Ken Goode, another defense attorney, did not give an opening statement.
But in a hearing before the trial began, Goode said the attack was not motivated by racial hatred.
"They know this was not a hate crime," Goode said. "I really think it's going to deny us a fair trial."
State District Judge Michael McSpadden said he would allow evidence about the attack being racially motivated.
Authorities testified they found a swastika imprinted on the upper part of Tuck's left boot as well as on the inside flap of his wallet.
Sons said he didn't call for paramedics until the next morning.
The Hispanic boy's mother, who was in the courtroom with his father and other relatives, cried as Sons detailed the attack.
Sons said at first he didn't say anything to authorities about what happened because he was scared and Tuck had threatened to kill him and his family if he did so.
Carlos Leon, an attorney for the victim's family members, said they believe the attack was a hate crime and are working to change the state's hate crime law.
Trent has said authorities didn't prosecute it as a hate crime because it wouldn't affect the possible punishments.
the bolded part is :bullcrap. it was a hate crimebut they are afraid that because it is he said/she said that they couldn't get a hate crime conviction
By JOE STINEBAKER
Associated Press
TOOLS
Email Get section feed
Print Subscribe NOW
HOUSTON — A girl whose kiss triggered the savage beating of a Hispanic teen testified today that when she told David Henry Tuck about the incident, his only reaction was to punch the victim in the face.
"Tuck hit him first. He didn't say anything. He just hit him in the face," said Danielle Sons, who was 12 when she attended an unsupervised party at her house where she, her brother Gus, Tuck, the victim and another teen drank and took cocaine and Xanax.
Sons said when the victim kissed her, "I kind of backed away ... He was kind of messed up. I knew he didn't mean anything."
Nevertheless, she told Gus Sons and the other boys about it, triggering a four- to five-hour attack in which the victim was stripped, kicked, beaten and sodomized with plastic pipe before the attackers stood him against a fence and poured bleach all over him.
Tuck, 18, is charged with aggravated sexual assault in the attack.
The victim, who was hospitalized for more than three months, is expected to testify later today. If convicted, Tuck could face from five to 99 years or life in prison.
The other person authorities say participated in the attack, Keith Robert Turner, 17, is set to go to trial next month.
Danielle Sons, who is half Hispanic, described the attack in grisly detail, including the racial epithets and shouts of "white power" that she said Tuck uttered while he beat the teen.
She testified that the victim "moaned really loud" as Tuck kicked the plastic patio-umbrella pole into the teen's rectum.
"He looked kind of crazy," she said. "He kicked it. He just did it once really far, and really hard, too."
Gus Sons testified on Tuesday that he could only watch the attack.
"He said, 'If you were white, you would be helping me,'" the 16-year-old Sons said of Tuck, whose trial began Tuesday and continues on Wednesday. Sons described Tuck as a "racist."
Defense attorney Chuck Hinton described Gus Sons as an "armed, crazed drug dealer" and tried to imply to jurors that Sons' testimony could not be trusted because his memory had been affected by the drugs he took.
Sons said Tuck and Turner dragged the victim into the backyard and kicked him with their steel-toed boots and punched him.
"He doesn't like anybody who is not white," Sons told the jury, which includes five black women and one Hispanic man.
In his opening statement, prosecutor Mike Trent called Tuck a "neo-Nazi" who "espouses beliefs by violent white supremacist groups."
Hinton and Ken Goode, another defense attorney, did not give an opening statement.
But in a hearing before the trial began, Goode said the attack was not motivated by racial hatred.
"They know this was not a hate crime," Goode said. "I really think it's going to deny us a fair trial."
State District Judge Michael McSpadden said he would allow evidence about the attack being racially motivated.
Authorities testified they found a swastika imprinted on the upper part of Tuck's left boot as well as on the inside flap of his wallet.
Sons said he didn't call for paramedics until the next morning.
The Hispanic boy's mother, who was in the courtroom with his father and other relatives, cried as Sons detailed the attack.
Sons said at first he didn't say anything to authorities about what happened because he was scared and Tuck had threatened to kill him and his family if he did so.
Carlos Leon, an attorney for the victim's family members, said they believe the attack was a hate crime and are working to change the state's hate crime law.
Trent has said authorities didn't prosecute it as a hate crime because it wouldn't affect the possible punishments.
the bolded part is :bullcrap. it was a hate crimebut they are afraid that because it is he said/she said that they couldn't get a hate crime conviction