Man Jailed 40 years for pouring boiling water on gay couple. #blacklivesmatter

Marquez Tolbert cries Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2016 as he listens in Atlanta to testimony in the trial of Martin Blackwell who is accused of pouring boiling water on him and a friend Anthony Gooden, right, as they slept. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
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A Georgian Judge has sentence a man to 40 years imprisonment for throwing boiling water on a gay couple while they slept.
After about 90 minutes deliberation by the jurors, the culprit, Martin Blackwell, 48, was found guilty of 2 count charge of aggravated assault and 8 count charge of aggravated battery on  Anthony Gooden and Marquez Tolbert.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk said the evidence was overwhelming and that Blackwell had behaved in a soulless and malicious way. He noted that it "takes a long time" for a pot of water to boil.
Prosecutors said it was a vicious, premeditated attack. Tolbert testified that after pouring hot water on them, Blackwell grabbed him as he jumped and screamed in pain and told him: "Get out of my house with all that gay."

Blackwell was a long-distance truck driver and lived with his girlfriend, Kim Foster, at her sister's apartment in College Park when he was in town. Gooden, who is Foster's son, and Tolbert had been dating about a month and were sleeping at the apartment Feb. 12 after working an overnight shift when Blackwell dumped scalding water on them.

Blackwell's attorney said her client felt the young men's behavior was disrespectful and that there were certain things people sharing a house shouldn't do.
The prosecutor said Blackwell's actions were well thought out. He took the time to select the biggest pot in the house, filled it with water and waited for it to boil. That gave him plenty of time to think about what he was doing and the consequences, Willis said.

Gooden, 24, spent about a month in the hospital, two weeks of that in a medically induced coma, and Tolbert, 21, spent 10 days in the hospital. Both men suffered severe burns that required multiple surgeries and skin grafts.

They both testified Tuesday that they suffered great pain and were unable to perform even the most basic everyday tasks — eating, bathing and using the bathroom — without help when they got out of the hospital.
"I'm ecstatic. I think justice has been served," Tolbert told reporters after the verdict. He was nervous before the trial, but once he testified about what had happened he felt a weight lift, he said.

Having gone through such an ordeal makes him realize that life is precious, Tolbert said, and he's ready to move on and focus on going to school to study architecture with a minor in computer engineering. He and Gooden remain friends and check in on each other to see how the other is healing, he said.