Massachusetts man beaten, held captive for four days because he was gay, police say
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A 19-year-old man is accused of beating and holding another man hostage in a basement bathroom, without food or water, for four days for being gay, Massachusetts police say.
Jackson Sugrue, of Framingham, is facing a hate crime charge after police on Saturday responded to a report of a man beating a person with a bat.
Police said they found 50-year-old Otoni Eliseu wearing only a pair of pants and lying on the ground covered in blood, bruises and scratches, Boston 25 reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Eliseu reportedly told police that he and Sugrue were “hanging out” and doing drugs before Sugrue suddenly became violent. Prosecutors said Sugrue allegedly impeded Eliseu from leaving the apartment by taking his phone away and “threatening him.”
Prosecutors said that Sugrue pulled Eliseu from his bed onto the floor and repeatedly attacked him by stepping on his throat and choking him.
“He attacked me on my back, on my butt, [saying] ‘you’re gay, you like me’,” Eliseu reportedly said, according to Boston 25.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He added that Sugrue allegedly beat him with a coffee table while yelling out homosexual slurs.
Sugrue allegedly kept Eliseu captive inside a basement apartment underneath the Philadelphia Baptist Church, where Eliseu had been staying after the church’s pastor allowed him to live there. The pastor told authorities Eliseu was a recovering drug addict.
On Saturday, Eliseu broke out of the apartment and made a run for it, police said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Jesus was helping me, thank God I’m alive,” he said, Boston 25 reported.
Eliseu was transported to MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham for treatment.
Sugrue was arrested on Saturday and charged with a hate crime, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery and intimidation of a witness.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sugrue denied the charges and claimed he is actually the victim and that Eliseu was trying to take advantage of him, his attorney said.
“He was trying to entice my client to do things that were against his nature,” Kenneth Gross said, according to MetroWest Daily News.
Sugrue’s parents told the Daily News that Eliseau was “obsessed with their son.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“It’s absolutely ridiculous to suggest my son would have anything to do with a hate crime,” Frank Sugrue told the newspaper.