Two Men Beat, Rape Texas Teen in Possible Anti-Gay Hate Crime

An unidentified 18-year-old male was allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted by two older men on Dec. 6 in an incident that has been dubbed a "possible hate crime," and which has reportedly drawn comparisons to the 1998 beating death of openly gay Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming.

According to a Dec. 9 article in The Dallas Voice, the teenager encountered the two alleged assailants at a bar, identified elsewhere as The Boat House, an establishment located in Terlingua Ghost Town, Texas, near the Mexican border. The young man was reportedly kidnapped by 46-year-old Daniel Martinez and 27-year-old Kristopher Buchanan, who transported the teen to a remote location using the victim's own vehicle, which the perpetrators then allegedly burned after raping him.

The assailants then brought the young man to a house and subjected him to further sexual assault. The teen escaped captivity, fleeing across several miles of desert terrain. A sheriff's deputy discovered him early in the morning hours of Dec. 7.

A follow-up article in the same publication the next day quoted John Waters, the publisher of The Big Bend Gazette, where the story was initially broken. "I have never encountered a case as violent as this," said Waters, calling the assault "absolutely shocking."

"In the seven years that I've been here and doing this," added Waters, "we have had one murder and prior to that one murder, no one could really remember when the last murder was." Waters said that local gays didn't typically have to worry about being attacked. "If you can survive in the desert and figure out how to make a living and figure out how to deal with 115 degree temperatures, nobody cares about the rest," Waters said.

A Dec. 14 Alpine Avalanche article said that Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson had confirmed details of the case, and had said, "There had not been any run-ins before between the victim and [assailants]." The investigation is ongoing.

GLBT news blog Towleroad reported on Dec. 14 that a rally had been organized by a gentleman identified only as James, who sent our an email recounting that, "The two perpetrators were arrested (It took two full days--even with a positive ID from the victim the previous Sunday night it happened) and bond has been set at a ridiculously low $35,000 for one of the men (That means he only has to post $3,500 for bail)!

"This is a blow both to the West Texas community at large and a blow to our sense of safety and security," James continued, going on to invite readers "to join me at 6 pm [on Dec. 14] on the courthouse lawn to show your support for the victim of this awful crime and to stand with me against crimes like this."

In an earlier article, Towleroad took note of the fact that no media story stated definitively whether or not the victim was in fact gay.