LONDON, Ky. (AP) -- An eastern Kentucky man beaten in what prosecutors say was a hate crime says he leapt off the side of a mountain and dropped 20 feet to a ledge to escape his attackers.
Kevin Pennington of Partridge, Ky., told federal jurors Wednesday in London that he didn't understand why Anthony Ray Jenkins and David Jason Jenkins kidnapped him and took him to Kingdom Come State Park in Harlan County to try to kill him. Pennington testified that the Jenkinses shouted obscenities and anti-gay slurs as they beat and stomped on his body on April 4, 2011.
The Jenkinses are charged with kidnapping, assault and committing a hate crime. They have pleaded not guilty.
Government attorneys say this is the first prosecution in the nation charging a violation of the sexual orientation section of the Matthew Shepard-James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was passed in 2009.
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