HOUSTON - A jury that convicted a white teenager in a savage attack in which he yelled racial slurs as he sodomized a Hispanic boy with a plastic pipe will now determine his punishment.

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Jurors deliberated for four hours Thursday before finding David Henry Tuck, 18, guilty of aggravated sexual assault in the attack during an April party in a Houston suburb.

The jury was to begin hearing testimony Friday in the sentencing phase of the trial.

The 17-year-old victim's family hopes Tuck will receive the maximum sentence of life in prison. He could be sentenced to as few as five years.

"If he gets a slap on the wrist, you will see an upset family," said Carlos Leon, the family's attorney.

Prosecutor Mike Trent told the jury Thursday the attack had been motivated by Tuck's hatred of minorities. Tuck shouted "white power!" and various racial epithets during the attack, Trent said.

Doctors did not initially expect the boy to live. He was hospitalized for more than three months and underwent 20 to 30 surgeries. He testified Wednesday that he remembered nothing of the assault.

Defense attorneys said that despite testimony about swastikas being found on Tuck's possessions, the case was not about racial hatred but about a party where drugs were taken and somebody got hurt.

Youths were drinking, smoking marijuana, snorting cocaine and taking Xanax at the party, according to testimony.

Defense attorneys blamed the attack on a 16-year-old partygoer and his 13-year-old sister.

During the trial, the siblings testified they helplessly watched as Tuck and another teen beat, kicked and sodomized the victim with the plastic pole of a patio umbrella. They said the attack was triggered by the victim's drunken pass at the girl, who was 12 at the time, and his attempt to steal drugs.

Defense attorneys said there was no physical evidence linking the pole to Tuck or the other teen accused in the attack, 17-year-old Keith Robert Turner. Turner is set to go to trial next month.

The Associated Press has not identified the Hispanic teen because he is a juvenile sexual assault victim.

i've been posting the updates since i found out he was going to trial....good for the stupid f*cker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! asshole will find out what its like to have something shoved up his ass....the only reason that they weren't pursuing this as a hate crime case is because they couldn't guarantee the kid being charged on hate crime but could on sexual assault

Althought it's 'clearly' a hate crime, I'm glad they got him for the sexual assault....I hope he is convicted, because there is just no excuse for such violent behavior....I mean, they almost killed him! :no

oh i absolutely agree that he'll get his in jail!! their bs that they were saying was that they weren't charging it as a hate crime because they had no direct evidence that it was.

here's the other article for people that missed it, it describes in a bit more detail about the actual attack:
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.

Evidence with hate crimes is hard to prove...that's probably why they didn't want to risk convicting him of that, then having him found not guilty....but I'm with you....that is total BS.....but at least they're going to be able to get him SOMETHING, ya know?

I can only hope that the young man who was the victim is going to be OK, now and in the future....

yeah i pray for the victim.

my consolation and as bad as it sounds is that if the attacker goes to prison...which he will even if it is a minimum of 5 years...he'll know what it felt like, they've got poles in prison.

yeah i pray for the victim.

my consolation and as bad as it sounds is that if the attacker goes to prison...which he will even if it is a minimum of 5 years...he'll know what it felt like, they've got poles in prison.

Exactly....he'll be on the bottom of the totem poll as far as rank is concerned in prision...molesters aren't exactly held in high regard.....