Gay-on-Gay Assault Defendant Gets Nine Years

By ANDREA AUSTIN

A Bronx man was sentenced on Thursday to up to nine years in prison for assaulting a couple at a Dallas BBQ restaurant in Chelsea after one of the victims provoked the defendant by hitting him with a purse for allegedly calling him a “faggot.”

Bayna Lehkeim El-Amin, 42, was filmed by a witness relentlessly attacking Jonathan Snipes and Ethan Adams on May 5, 2015. The short video was posted online and shows El-Amin hitting Snipes while he lay on the ground and then smashing a wooden chair over the couple’s heads.

Assistant DA Leah Saxtein said Snipes thought he heard El-Amin call him the name so he confronted him and hit him with a small purse. El-Amin then hit Snipes, threw him to the ground, stomped on his head and smashed a chair over the couple’s heads, knocking Adams unconscious. El-Amin left the restaurant and waited one and a half months to turn himself in.

Saxtein told the court El-Amin claimed “he was the real victim” and that he is “willing to do or say anything” to get sympathy. She added that he has had 29 felony convictions from multiple different states including forgery and drug possession, though the defense countered that it has been ten years since he was last accused.

El-Amin, found guilty on two counts of first-degree attempted assault and two counts of second-degree assault, was also sentenced by Judge Arlene Goldberg to up to five years probation and issued two orders of protection for the victims.

The assault was initially reported as an “anti-gay” attack by a 6-foot-6 homophobic black man, but it was later revealed that El-Amin is gay and has a long history of working with the LGBTQ community. He worked as a mentor for young queer and trans people of color and is a state-certified HIV counselor.

Around 20 members of the Freedom2Live collective, a group that helps support LGBTQ people of color facing criminalization and discrimination, wore turquoise bands in support of El-Amin. At the end of the sentencing, a member of the group, Mitchyll Mora, yelled, “Shame, shame on you, judge!” Members stood outside the courthouse and held signs that read, “Racist #freebayna.”

Before his sentence was read, El-Amin sat in a light brown tunic and white knitted kufi cap and said, “No one here was there that night…two drunk white men felt entitled to swing at me.” He said he believes the heavy conviction has to do with his race and that if the situation were reversed, the outcome would be different. “I’ve been an advocate for over 20 years…It’s not who I am,” said el-Amin.

Judge Goldberg rejected the claim of self-defense in respect to smashing a chair over their heads and said the injuries were minor only by luck. She said there is, “no evidence of it having to do with race,” and his heavy sentence is a result of the violent nature of the crime and his prior criminal history.