A district court in Houston, Texas, sentenced an 18-year-old white supremacist to life in prison for the aggravated sexual assault of a Hispanic teenager during an April party in the Houston suburb of Spring, Texas.
Witnesses testified that Tuck shouted racial slurs and "white power" as he kicked the 17-year-old, cut him with a knife, sodomized him with the plastic pipe from a backyard umbrella, and poured bleach on him in an assault that lasted up to five hours. The attack perforated the teen's bowels, burst his bladder and caused massive internal injuries.
The victim was left bleeding in the backyard until the next day, when the teens who lived at the house woke their mother, who slept through the attack.
Another defendant, a 17-year old boy, will face trial in December on the same charge.
In his opening statement, prosecutor Mike Trent called Tuck a neo-Nazi who "espouses beliefs by violent white supremacist groups."
A 13-year-old female resident of the home told the jurors about the party at her house where she, her brother, Tuck, the victim and another teen allegedly drank alcohol and took cocaine and Xanax. She testified that the victim tried to kiss her and the beating ensued after she told her older brother about it.
The victim testified that he could not remember anything about the incident. He also told the jury about undergoing 20 to 30 operations, saying, "I have many surgeries to go." The victim, who wears a colostomy bag, pointed out his broken cheekbone and cigarette burns on his arm, back, leg and forehead in the photos and other injuries.
Prosecutors brought in witnesses to illustrate Tuck's long-standing propensity for violence, providing examples of more than a half-dozen attacks committed by Tuck and his neo-Nazi friends.
One witness, a 51-year-old Hispanic man testified about a run-in with Tuck in January 2003. The man stated that he was gassing up his truck at a convenience store when Tuck and two older skinhead friends shouted anti-Hispanic racial slurs at him, then attacked him. He and another victim were hospitalized as a result of the attack. The two friends are serving time in federal prisons; Tuck's juvenile file is sealed.
Tuck's past also includes an assault on a minority child who was walking near his home. When the police arrived to arrest him for this attack, Tuck kicked a deputy and was charged with assaulting a peace officer. He was then sent to a Texas Youth Commission lockup.
The state decided not to prosecute the case as a hate crime because the charges brought already carried a life sentence which a hate crime conviction would not have enhanced.
