October 18, 2012
Witness: Pair Plotted to Kill Gay Man in Kentucky
Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 1 MIN.
LONDON, Ky. - An eastern Kentucky man beaten in what prosecutors say was a hate crime says he leapt off the side of a mountain and dropped 20 feet to a ledge to escape his attackers.
Kevin Pennington told federal jurors Wednesday in London, Ky., that he didn't understand why Anthony Ray Jenkins and David Jason Jenkins kidnapped him and took him to a park to try to kill him.
The cousins are charged with kidnapping, assault and committing a hate crime. They have pleaded not guilty.
Government attorneys say this is the first U.S. prosecution charging a violation of the sexual orientation section of the Matthew Shepard-James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act passed in 2009.
Pennington testified that the Jenkinses shouted anti-gay slurs as they beat and stomped on him in 2011.
