CA Man Charged With Luring, Beating Of Gay Man

Sonora, California’s KVML radio reports:

Tuolumne County District Attorney Cassandra Jenecke reports that a criminal complaint has now been filed against a Jamestown man accused of attacking another man at an apartment complex on January 28. The incident has drawn heavy local interest, especially from allies of the LGBTQ community. The victim was allegedly lured to the apartment and attacked because of his identity, according to public statements made by the victim’s legal representatives.

44-year-old Christopher Mark Jacobs is formally charged with, “a felony violation of Penal Code section 245(a)(4), assault with force likely to commit great bodily injury.” Jacobs has not been charged with committing a hate crime, but Jenecke notes that the motivation behind the crime, including whether it would qualify as a hate crime, is still under investigation. Two unidentified minors were also arrested in connection to the incident.

Attorneys for the victim released a statement:

The victim was contacted through an app by another adult man who he thought he could build a friendship with based upon the shared and sometimes lonely experience of being a gay man in a small town.

Instead of meeting a potential new friend, he was lured to a location where he was brutally beaten for the sole reason that he is gay.

Any statement to the contrary is an obvious and disgusting attempt to justify gay bashing, and I hope that no one hearing me today makes space in their head or heart for such ugly, hateful, inflammatory, and patently false information.”

Jacobs has so far been charged with three felonies in total and has bonded out of jail.