2 South Texas men get maximum for man's hate crime torture

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — Two South Texas men have received the maximum 15-year sentences in federal prison after pleading guilty to federal hate crime charges in the March 2012 torture of a gay African-American man in Corpus Christi.

Ramiro Serrata Jr. and Jimmy Garza were sentenced Wednesday in Corpus Christi by Senior U.S. District Judge Hayden Head. Both men must pay the victim $10,800 in restitution and each serve three years of supervised release and register as sex offenders. Both pleaded guilty last September.

Garza, who's 33, and Serrata, who's 23, admitted luring the man to an apartment and, for three hours, punching, kicking and assaulting him with various weapons, including a frying pan, a battery-filled sock, a belt and a broomstick. They taunted him with racist and homophobic epithets.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.

The Gayly- 2/17/2016 @ 5:29 PM CST