Gay Black Man Gets 9 Years in Jail for Attacking 2 White Gay Men in Chelsea

CHELSEA, NY — The man who was recorded last year smashing a chair over the heads of a gay couple in Chelsea's Dallas BBQ was sentenced to nine years in jail on Thursday, the New York Post reported. Bayna-Lehkeim El-Amin, 42, had argued it was an issue of race, and that he was attacked first by the white gay couple, when one of the men struck him with his purse. The couple, Ethan York-Adams and Jonathan Snipes, argued they heard anti-gay slurs from El-Amin, and were attacked. The couple wasn't seriously injured.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arlene Goldberg said to El-Amin, "I know you want to cast this as an issue about race, I just do not see that there is any evidence of that."

"When you picked up the chair, that was a criminal act, that cannot be excused," Goldberg said.

El-Amin said he is an active LGBT activist, and dozens of his supporters shouted at Goldberg in the courtroom after her sentence, the Post reported. One of the supporters yelled, "Racist!"

El-Amin was facing from 3 and a half years to 15 years in jail.

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