Bayna Lekheim El-Amin, 42, received nine years in prison for assaulting Jonathan Snipes and boyfriend Ethan York Adams at a Dallas BBQ restaurant in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, the New York Daily News reports.
Apparently Snipes thought he heard El-Amin call the gay couple "f—gots," and so he hit him with his canvas bag in response during the May 2015 incident.
Unfortunately for Snipes, El-Amin, who is 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 280 pounds, knocked Snipes to the ground and stomped on his head. He then proceeded to pick up a chair and swing it at the couple's heads.
According to the Daily News, El-Amin claimed that Snipes, who is white, had a "weapon" and that he was punished because of discrimination.
"I feel like my race was involved in that … if the situation was reversed and I would have went up to them, it would have been different," he said. "It wouldn't have come out the same."
He also said that he never used the homophobic slur and cited his work as an LGBT activist.
Assistant District Attorney Leah Saxtein said that El-Amin was being selfish and looking for revenge by stomping on Snipes' head. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arlene Goldberg said it was only by luck that El-Amin did not seriously injure the couple when he hit them in their heads.
Read more at the New York Daily News.