Woman Sentenced to 9 Years in Prison for Attack Outside San Fran Gay Club

A woman was sentenced to nine years in prison Monday for pulling out a knife and chasing down five patrons outside a gay club in San Francisco last year, SFGate reports.

Pearly Martin, 30, was found guilty of making criminal threats, burglary and vandalism stemming from the the April 25, 2016 incident.

The attack took place in front of Club OMG after its drag night event. The five patrons left the club around 2 a.m. when Martin and several friends approached the group. She wrongly believed the patrons were taking photos of her on their phones and humiliating her.

Court documents obtained by SFGate say Martin hurled swears and gay slurs at the victims, one of whom was in drag. She also spewed insults about the patrons' appearances before pulling out a knife and threatening to kill them. The patrons ran separate ways with two running inside a car and locking the doors.

Martin then kicked one of the doors and banged on the windows before trying to slash the tires with the knife. She then went after the other three victims, who ran to their apartments nearby. Martin and her friends cornered the victims in the building's lobby as they called police. The three patrons were able to escape, however.

Police eventually arrested Martin, who kicked the windows of a patrol car so hard that it caused damage to the glass and window frame, according to the court docs SFGate obtained.

The newspaper reports Martin's sentence could have been more severe as she was originally charged with a hate crime. But the jury did not find her guilty of the charge. Martin's attorney John Kaman argued his client is bisexual and that the gay slurs she used in the incident were part of her everyday use.

"That is the way she talks," Kaman said in his closing argument, according to SFGate. "It doesn't mean she hates members of the LGBT community. It doesn't mean anything at all."

He added that "there is a different language that is spoken in parts of the city on the streets, and I don't want you to be confused by that."

However, Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Mains disagreed, arguing Martin "engaged in a pattern of victim blaming, and shaming, and tried to excuse and minimize her extremely aggressive and scary behavior by claiming that her aggression and homophobic epithets are cultural."

SFGate reports Martin added the victims were "celebrating in what they rightfully presumed was a safe and welcoming place. The sense of community that we foster in San Francisco is one of inclusion and acceptance. It is a fundamental tenet of this city that you can be open and proud regardless of who you are, or who you love."