Three young men have been sentenced to
five years in prison for the beating of Brandon White, a gay man, on
an Atlanta street corner.
The men allegedly beat 20-year-old
White on February 4 outside a southwest Atlanta store. The beating
was captured on video and posted online. In the video, the men can
be heard shouting anti-gay slurs at White as passersby look on.
According to The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dorian Moragne, Dareal Demare
Williams and Christopher Cain were sentenced on Friday. Each also
received five years of probation. A fourth suspect, Javaris
Bradford, who allegedly taped the beating, remains at large.
“Y'all are the ultimate bullies, and
you bullied somebody and you hurt him,” Fulton County Superior
Judge Jackson Bedford told the young men. “To me there is no
question you did it because of his sexual orientation.”
Williams told the judge that he was
disappointed in himself because “I know better and know right from
wrong.”
White had called his attackers
“monsters.”
“I feel as though I should have
justice,” White said during a press conference, “because those
guys didn't feel my pain. They didn't care whether or not I was
injured. I could have died that day. They're monsters.”
Congressman John Lewis was among those
who rallied to White's side in the days following the beating. He
spoke out against crime at a rally in support of White: “When you
see something going wrong, you must do what you are doing today.”