Prosecutor: Teen Attack No Hate Crime

Prosecutors will not seek hate-crime charges against two white teens accused of brutally beating and sodomizing a 16-year-old Hispanic boy after he tried to kiss a young girl, officials said.

If the teenagers are convicted, though, jurors will be told during sentencing about the ethnic slurs used during the attack, Harris County prosecutor Mike Trent told the Houston Chronicle for Friday's editions.

David Henry Tuck, 18, and Keith Robert Turner, 17, are both charged with aggravated sexual assault in the attack that left the unidentified victim in critical condition with massive internal injuries.

Authorities said the two dragged the boy from a house party Saturday and into the yard, where they sodomized him with a plastic pipe from a patio table umbrella and poured bleach on him. Trent on Friday described the pipe as being sharpened at one end and said Tuck stomped on the boy with steel-toe boots and kicked the pipe into him.

At one point, the teens tried to carve something on the boy's chest with a knife, he told CNN Friday.

"I don't know that the very beginning of the attack was racial," Trent said, "but there's no question that they were venting quite a bit of hatred in their hearts."

The victim lay behind the house for more than 10 hours before he was found and someone called an ambulance. Trent said there were witnesses to the beating, though no one else had been charged.

"He was severely beaten. Oh, I couldn't believe it. His face was so swollen. Lips, everything. There was just blood everywhere," neighbor Nancy Benavidez told KHOU-TV.

Benavidez says she didn't hear anything unusual Saturday night.

"I feel bad," says Benavidez. "I wish I would have been able to hear something so we could have helped."

Investigators said the attack happened at an unsupervised house party after the 16-year-old tried to kiss a 12-year-old Hispanic girl.

Bleach was poured over the boy's body in an attempt to destroy DNA evidence, Sheriff's Lt. John Denholm said.

Charles Hinton, Tuck's attorney, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. It was not known if Turner had an attorney.

Authorities set bond at $100,000 for Turner, who was still waiting to make his initial court appearance. Tuck's bond was initially set at $20,000, but it was revoked Thursday during a court hearing.

The sexual assault charges are punishable by five years to life in prison.

Trent said if the victim dies, the teens could face murder charges punishable by life in prison or the death penalty.

KHOU reports investigators say this isn't the first run-in with the law for Tuck, who is on probation for a cross-burning in Liberty County, or Turner.

In addition, Turner was supposed to be in jail when the attack happened, according to KHOU. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to evading detention on March 3rd. He was transferred to Montgomery County where he was serving time for a theft conviction, and was released April 11, a full month early.

Sources tell KHOU that Tuck also has an extensive criminal record as a juvenile. Charges of assault on a public servant, aggravated assault with bodily injury and two other assault charges.

At Klein Collins High where at one time, both suspects and the victim were students, some students tell KHOU that both suspects had a reputation for violence.

Turner was known for his fits. "He was violent. He would go into these little fits where he would just beat every body up. All the time," a student told KHOU.

Another student told KHOU that Tuck "had tattoos on him of Hitler's birthday and all that stuff."