[TexasCajun]

One perpetrator got a life sentence and the other 60+ yrs, but neither was charged with a "Hate Crime".

Poor kid.

[theDentist]

Sad... his family must be devastated.

[billybudd]

Trial testimony revealed Ritcheson and Gus Sons, whom he'd befriended at an alternative school for students with disciplinary problems, met up with Tuck and Turner at a crawfish festival in Spring the night of the attack. From there, they went to Sons' house, where they drank vodka, smoked marijuana and used cocaine and Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug.

So this guy and his buddies from the school-for-thugs got drugged up beyond belief and they turned on him when they thought he was trying to make out with the kid sister of one of them. Doesn't sound like a "hate crime" and I don't have much sympathy for him. Sorry.

[MEGoody]

From there, they went to Sons' house, where they drank vodka, smoked marijuana and used cocaine and Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug.

I'd like to hear from the 'make drugs legal' crowd on this one.