Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Austin’s CBS News affiliate reports:
Two men from Dallas pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes on Thursday for their connection to a scheme to target gay men for violent crimes.
Daryl Henry, 24, and Pablo Deleon, 19, both used the dating app Grindr to lure gay men to a vacant apartment and other areas in and around Dallas for robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, and hate crimes.
Federal prosecutors say Henry admitted that he and others held the victims against their will in the vacant apartment. Deleon admitted that he and others traveled to local ATMs to withdraw cash from the victims’ accounts.
Via press release from the Justice Department:
According to court documents filed in connection with their guilty pleas, both Henry and Ceniceros-Deleon admitted Grindr was used, a social media dating platform primarily used by gay men, to lure gay men to a vacant apartment and other areas in and around Dallas for robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, and hate crimes.
Henry admitted that he and others held the victims against their will in the vacant apartment. Ceniceros-Deleon admitted that he and others traveled to local ATMs to withdraw cash from the victims’ accounts. Both Henry and Ceniceros-Deleon admitted that while the victims were being held captive they were subjected to taunts based upon the co-conspirators’ perception of the men’s sexual orientation.
In addition, Ceniceros-Deleon admitted to being the gunman in a Dec. 7, 2017, carjacking where he and others used Grindr to lure a man to a location and then forced the man, at gunpoint, to drive the conspirators to local ATMs to withdraw cash from the man’s account.
Dallas men plead guilty to using Grindr to target gay men for hate crimes https://t.co/dMKza4EJlS
— Washington Blade (@WashBlade) December 13, 2019