Trump supporter pleads guilty to hate crimes targeting Gay men
A 24-year-old man pleaded guilty Thursday to federal kidnapping and conspiracy charges in a robbery scheme that used Grindr to lure gay men to an empty Dallas apartment where they were held at gunpoint, beaten and robbed.
Michael Atkinson faces up to life in prison for the kidnapping charge and five years in prison for the conspiracy charge. He had been charged with one count of conspiracy, four counts of hate crimes, six counts of kidnapping, one count of carjacking and one count of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
Seven victims told investigators they'd used the dating app Grindr and met men who invited them to an empty apartment at a complex on Chariot Road in Buckner Terrace in December 2017, according to a federal complaint.
Dallas police began investigating when an eighth man was carjacked at a Mesquite Home Depot and forced to drive to the Dallas apartment. He escaped and called 911, then led investigators to the empty unit.
Detectives watching the apartment followed one of Atkinson's alleged co-conspirators, Pablo Ceniceros-Deleon, to an ATM, where he used a victim's rainbow-striped debit card, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Police returned to the apartment and found four victims in a bedroom, including one in a closet. Three of the men had been lured there on Grindr, they told police, and the fourth was carjacked at a gas station.
Other victims told authorities they had gone to the apartment for sex with a man whose image they'd seen on Grindr but instead were beaten and robbed or forced at gunpoint to withdraw cash from an ATM.
Ceniceros-Deleon, 18, has been charged with five counts of aggravated robbery in Dallas County. In May 2018, he tampered with his electronic ankle monitor and fled, and he remains at large.
A third suspect, 19-year-old Daniel Jenkins, has been charged with one count of conspiracy, four counts of hate crimes, seven counts of kidnapping, two counts of carjacking and one count of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. He is awaiting trial.