Dallas police classify brutal robbery as bias-related, saying suspects thought gays would make easier target

Jimmy Lee Dean

Jimmy Lee Dean was well aware of the dangers of walking in Dallas’ gay entertainment district at night, according to his longtime friend, Jack Warner.

Dean, 42, an aspiring musician and freelance Web designer, has lived in the area for about two decades, just a few blocks from Warner. But Dean, whom Warner described as “skinny” and “tiny” at 5-feet-8-inches tall, wouldn’t walk the short distance home from his friend’s house after dark.

“He’s very paranoid about walking the streets at night,” said Warner, who estimated that he’s known Dean for 17 years. “If he comes over to my house and we start playing guitar, either he asks me to drive him home, or he spends the night. He’s conscious about these things.”

Unfortunately, Dean’s awareness didn’t prevent him from becoming the victim of what’s being called the most brutal gay-bashing in Dallas in recent memory, in the early morning hours of July 17.

Dean, who’d been walking with a man he’d just met, was attacked by two suspects just a block from the Cedar Springs strip and a few feet from a parking lot that serves the city’s largest gay nightclubs.

Dallas police said Dean’s attackers, both from Garland, admitted that they targeted him because they thought it would be easier to rob a gay man. Witnesses said the suspects also used anti-gay epithets before, during and after the attack.

DPD has classified the incident as a hate crime for FBI reporting purposes, but it was unclear this week whether it would be prosecuted as such.

Jonathan R. Gunter

The two suspects, 26-year-old Bobby Jack Singleton and 31-year-old Jonathan Russell Gunter, are accused of pistol-whipping Dean with a 9mm Glock handgun, then kicking and stomping his head, face and body as he lay motionless and belly-up in the middle of a dimly lit street.

Singleton and Gunter are charged with aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony, because authorities recovered a set of keys and a Zippo lighter, valued at a total of $30, that belonged to Dean.

Singleton and Gunter, who were initially apprehended by security guards from the nearby nightclubs, remain in Dallas County jail, and their bonds were increased a few days after the attack to $300,000 each. If convicted as charged, they face five years to life in prison.

Bobby J. Singleton

Dean reportedly suffered a broken jaw and vertebrae, as well as several other facial fractures and severe swelling. Witnesses reported that after the beating, his nose was attached only by a piece of skin.

Dean’s injuries were so bad that police were unable to interview or identify him for days after the attack. On Tuesday, July 22, a spokesman for Parkland Memorial Hospital said Dean’s condition had been upgraded to fair, meaning he was no longer in intensive care.

“He’ll survive, but he needs a lot of reconstructive surgery,” Warner said a day earlier. “He’s in and out [of consciousness] and in a lot of pain. They did a real number on him.”

LGBT advocates say the crime serves as a grim reminder that anti-gay violence, though perhaps not as prevalent as it once was, continues to be a problem, even in places like Dallas. And the brazenness and severity of the attack drew comparisons to a fatal shooting that occurred near an ATM on the Cedar Springs strip in April 2007.

“It’s just really sad that our neighborhood is again dealing with violence, in a place that we’ve considered safe for so long,” said Jesse Garcia, president of Stonewall Democrats of Dallas, North Texas’ largest LGBT political organization. “I’m very shocked. I’m very saddened.”


Unsuspecting heroes
Michael Robinson doesn’t know why he strayed from his normal route that night.

Robinson, a 48-year-old gay car salesman, said when he walks home from the strip, he typically travels along Cedar Springs Road to Reagan Street, then makes a right and walks past Dickason Avenue to his apartment complex.

But around midnight on Wednesday, July 16, when Robinson walked out the front door of Zini’s Pizzeria, he decided to cut through the parking lot between Zini’s and Woody’s, the gay sports bar immediately to the west.

“For some odd reason, I just went out the door and I went left,” Robinson said. “I still can’t explain why I went left. Maybe I was supposed to go that way.”

Moments later, Robinson would become the lone eyewitness to the crime, and ultimately he may have helped save Dean’s life. Robinson and a handful of other bystanders also are credited with allowing police to arrest the suspects.

Voice Eyewitness Michael Robinson points to the spot on Reagan Street, behind the Black-eyed Pea Restaurant, where one of the suspects in the beating of Jimmy Lee Dean ditched a gun that was used in the attack, which has been classified by police as an anti-gay hate crime. - JOHN WRIGHT/Dallas

It was in the parking lot between Zini’s and Woody’s that Robinson encountered Dean, who was walking in the same direction. They struck up a conversation, and as they circled behind Zini’s toward Throckmorton Street, it became apparent to Robinson that Dean was intoxicated.

Dean asked Robinson if he wanted to hang out and whether he had any beer at home.

Robinson, who doesn’t drink, remarked that it was late, he was tired and it appeared as though Dean had already had enough. Dean joked that he was just getting started.

Warner said such a comment wouldn’t have been uncharacteristic for his friend.

“He’s well known around the neighborhood in the gay bars,” Warner said. “Some people like him, some people can’t stand him. But that goes with everyone. Whether he was intoxicated that night or whether he wasn’t, it really doesn’t matter. Even if he was cocktailed, he’s not a violent person. When he’s cocktailed, he just wants to have more fun.”

As Robinson and Dean crossed Throckmorton Street and headed down Dickason Avenue toward Reagan Street, they passed the suspects walking in the opposite direction. When the suspects doubled back and came up behind Robinson and Dean, Robinson turned around to confront them.

There was a verbal exchange between the parties, with the suspects hurling anti-gay slurs at Robinson and Dean. Robinson continued walking and encouraged Dean to do the same.

But after the suspects got between Robinson and Dean, it became apparent to Robinson what was about to happen. He ran to his apartment about a block away and retrieved a knife.

By the time Robinson returned, Dean lay in the middle of Dickason Avenue, with the suspects kicking him and stomping his face. According to court documents, Robinson told police they were yelling things like, “You gay ass motherfucker, punk-ass bitch.”

Robinson said he’s haunted by the notion that he should have stayed with Dean.

“That’s what keeps going on in my head, ‘What could I have done differently?’” Robinson said.

When Robinson approached with the knife, one of the suspects pulled out the gun that had been used in the beating. Robinson backed off, but the suspects — now distracted from their violent rage — began walking away from Dean toward Reagan Street.

“He may not have made it had he been there 30 seconds longer getting his head stomped in the ground,” Robinson said.

Norman Draper, 26, of Addison, said he was acting as the designated driver for some gay friends that night. Draper, who’s straight, said they’d been to the Round-Up, where he likes to play video poker.

Draper was southbound on Reagan Street when he pulled up to the stop sign at Dickason Avenue, and the two suspects passed behind his car on foot headed east, away from the crime scene.

After he looked to his right and saw Dean lying in the road, Draper jumped out, put up some flares he keeps in his trunk and called 911.

Draper, a former security officer who was trained in the Police Explorer program as a youth, also began to gather and preserve evidence while witnesses waited for authorities to arrive.

Draper said he used a latex glove to pick up the gun, which the suspects ditched in some high grass along Reagan Street. He also used a piece of paper to pick up a bloody knife that was found near Dean.

After the suspects had been apprehended, the security officers detained them against Draper’s vehicle until police arrived.

“It’s kind of natural for me just to get out and help somebody,” Draper said. “I don’t do it to be a hero. … It’s just being at the right place at the right time to help out, or being at the wrong place at the wrong time and having it happen to you.”

Around the same time Draper arrived, the security officers converged on the suspects.

One of the officers, Summer Housmans, said a motorist who’d seen Dean lying in the street initially reported the incident to her partner, who was stationed near Throckmorton Street and Cedar Springs Road.

Housmans said she was in front of Sue Ellen’s on Throckmorton Street when the call came over the radio. As Housmans came around the corner toward the scene, she said her partner was already in the process of detaining one of the suspects.

Housmans chased the other suspect, who ran behind the Black-Eyed Pea Restaurant and tried to hide in a corner. Meanwhile, Robinson was yelling to Housmans that the suspect might still have a gun.

“It was a little nerve-racking, to say the least,” said Housmans, a rookie officer who’s been on the job for only six months. “It was an all-new experience for me. … I did my job. That’s basically all I can say. I don’t see myself as a hero.”

Housmans and the other three officers who were involved work for Parkridge Security Inc., a company owned by openly gay Dallas County Judge Jim Foster. Parkridge provides security for Caven Enterprises, which owns J.R.’s, Sue Ellen’s and Station 4.

“They all did an outstanding job,” Foster said of the officers.

Foster said he began providing security for Caven 25 years ago. Coincidentally, the initial goal was to protect patrons from anti-gay violence.

Over the weekend, Foster said he got the suspects’ bonds increased by contacting the county’s criminal justice director, who was able to get in touch with a judge. Singleton and Gunter initially were being held on $25,000 and $100,000 bond, respectively.

“I asked for the bond to be increased, and it was done,” Foster said.


Hate crime concerns
All witnesses interviewed for this story agreed that the attack was a hate crime. After being detained at the scene, the suspects reportedly indicated that they traveled to the area with the specific intent of finding a gay person to victimize.

Dallas police initially said they believed the primary motive was robbery, but people like Robinson questioned why if that was the case, the suspects didn’t draw their weapons at the outset.

Janice Crowther, a senior corporal in DPD’s media relations office, said she was unsure whether the suspects took the lighter and keys from Dean’s pockets before or after they beat him nearly to death.

On Monday, with pressure mounting from Robinson, Warner and others, DPD announced the hate crime classification.

“They said they robbed him because they thought robbing a gay person was an easy target,” Crowther said, adding that detectives had finally been able to interview Dean. “After talking to all the witnesses and hearing the gay slurs that were yelled at this man, it was determined that yeah, this was a hate crime.”

Beyond that, police have been tightlipped about their investigation. Crowther made no mention of a knife being used in the attack, but court records confirm that a blood-covered knife was recovered by Draper at the scene. Witnesses said they were unsure whether the knife had been used to stab Dean.

Anti-gay hate crimes aren’t uncommon in Dallas or Texas. Fourteen incidents in Dallas in 2006 and seven in 2007 were classified as anti-gay hate crimes, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Thousands of incidents have been classified as hate crimes by law enforcement since Texas’ current statute, named for African-American murder victim James Byrd Jr. of Jasper, took effect in 2001.

However, only nine of those cases have been prosecuted as hate crimes, and only one of those prosecutions was successful, according to Paul Scott, executive director of Equality Texas, the statewide gay-rights group.

Equality Texas has been pushing for the state Legislature to fund a study of the hate crimes statute, to help determine what might be limiting its use. Potential factors include a lack of training among prosecutors and a reluctance to pursue hate crimes convictions because they increase the burden of proof.

“It could be that maybe the law needs to be rewritten,” Scott said. “It’s not working. We’re not exactly sure why in some cases.”

Scott called the fact that Dallas police investigated and classified the incident as a hate crime “a positive step.”

“In some jurisdictions, to get to that point is very difficult,” he said.

But Scott said he believes it’s unlikely that the incident will be prosecuted as a hate crime.

Under Texas’ statute, a hate crimes finding by a jury means that the degree of a crime is increased by one level, but only if it’s a second- or third-degree felony. If the crime is already a first-degree felony, such as aggravated robbery, the degree and associated penalties cannot be increased, meaning the prosecution doesn’t gain anything.

“I would assume that a prosecutor probably would be reluctant simply because it doesn’t bump up the charge, and it’s an additional burden of proof at trial,” Scott said

“There may be a barrier that we need to address legislatively.”

Jamille Bradfield, a spokeswoman for the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, said Wednesday, July 23 that the case had not yet been received by her office.





This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition July 25, 2008.