Two Texas Men Plead Guilty to Federal Hate Crime for Assaults Based on Victim’s Sexual Orientation
In a press release that was released on August 22, 2017 it describes the charges Nigel Garrett and Cameron Ajiduah are facing after pleading guilty to assaulting various men due to the victim’s sexual orientation. Nigel, 21 and Cameron, 21, and two of their other friends Anthony Shelton and Chancler Encalade used a dating app aimed at gay males called Grindr to lure men into their scheme. The plan the boys made up was to lead men on and ask them to meet up at the victim’s house. Once at the victims house the defendants would restrain the victim with tape and then assault the man. The assault ranged from verbal slurs against the men’s homosexuality, physical assault and the defendants would brandish a gun during the invasion to keep the upper hand in the situation.
Previously, a federal grand jury returned an indictment against the four men. The formal charges varied from kidnapping, hate crimes, carjackings, and using firearms in order to commit violent crimes. This indictment not only charged them with the previous listed crimes but also pertaining to the four home invasions using Grindr; this indictment was conspiring to cause bodily injury due to the sexual orientation. Nigel Garrett and Cameron Ajiduah are looking at possibly serving life in prison as well as paying the fine of a quarter of a million dollars for pleading guilty to the hate crime.
