Man Who Attacked NYC Gay Couple With Chair Gets 9 Years in Prison

He threw a heavy chair at a gay couple and a Manhattan judge threw the proverbial "book" at him.

The man caught on video bashing a gay couple over the head with a wooden chair at a Manhattan barbecue restaurant in 2015 in retaliation for being slapped with a canvas bag, will have some time to think about how he could have handled the situation better - nine years to be exact. The New York Post reports.

Banya Lekheim El-Amin was slapped with a nine-year prison sentence Thursday for the brutal beating of gay couple at Dallas Barbecue in Chelsea on Cinco de Mayo in 2015. El Amin, 42, testified during his trial that he was the victim of an attack by one of his victims. He claimed that stomping one on the head with his foot and beating the other over the head with a heavy wooden chair was an act of self-defense.

El-Amin is 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 280 pounds

"They walked up to me, pulled out a weapon and struck me," El-Amin said in court, referring to the purse one of his victims Jonathan Snipes used to slap him after he thought he heard a gay slur.

"This incident was started by two drunk, white men that felt they were entitled to come and swing at me for no reason," he said in court.

"That you did not cause serious physical injury to them was only by luck," said Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arlene Goldberg during El-Amin's sentencing on Thursday.

The New York Daily News reports that a remorseless El-Amin, who had two dozen supporters in the court room during his sentencing, claimed he was being railroaded and did not apologize for his part in the beating.

"I feel like my race was involved in that ... if the situation was reversed and I would have went up to them, it would have been different. It wouldn't have come out the same," El-Amin said.

According to Gothamist, El-Amin has an extensive criminal record with 18 prior arrests for assault, shoplifting, drug possession, credit card fraud, forgery and possession of stolen property. His 22-year arrest record spans six states.

The assault case had first been thought of as a hate crime, but that changed when it was discovered that El-Amin himself is gay. The case against him was based on the crime itself instead of any perceived motivation.

Assistant District Attorney Leah Saxtein said El-Amin was purely selfish and desiring revenge by stomping "on another human being's head with his shoes."

"He used a dangerous instrument to strike them on the most vulnerable parts of their bodies," Saxtein said. "That is what the case is about - not homosexuality."