Kansas City Man Pleads Guilty To Shooting Teen Boy Because He Was Gay
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A Kansas City, Missouri man has plead guilty to the attempted murder of an underage teen age boy because he was gay.
According to The Kansas City Star: Malachi Robinson pleaded guilty in federal court to a hate crime committed against a teenager in 2019 because of the victim’s sexuality, the U.S. Western District Court of Missouri said Thursday.
Robinson, 26, attempted to murder a teenage boy by shooting him approximately eight times in 2019 in Swope Park because of the victim’s sexual orientation. The victim survived the attack with life-threatening injuries, said court spokesman Don Ledford.
Robinson pleaded guilty to a hate crime before U.S. District Court Judge Brian C. Wimes on Thursday. He will remain in federal detention until his sentencing hearing, which has not yet been scheduled, Ledford said.
As part of a plea agreement entered into on Thursday, Robinson acknowledged that he met the teen, identified only in court documents as M.S., at a branch of the Kansas City Public Library, where the teen asked if he could add Robinson as a Facebook friend. Over Facebook Messenger, M.S. asked Robinson his sexual orientation and suggested they hook up in the library bathroom. Robinson said he wasn’t gay, but agreed to receive oral sex outside the library in exchange for $5.
But unbeknownst to the teen, Robinson was emailing screenshots of the conversation to his girlfriend at the same time. “He tryna set me up on sumn now, gonna unfriend me,” Robinson wrote to his girlfriend. “Might shoot this boy if he try some gay shit.”
Later, Robinson suggested they walk to a wooded area nearby, but M.S. sought to leave the woods before any sex occurred. That’s when Robinson pulled out a handgun and shot M.S. three times in the chest, three times in his right arm, once in his left buttocks, and once in his right hand, almost detaching his finger.
The teen spent roughly two weeks in a hospital and continues to receive treatment for his injuries.
After Robinson fled the scene, he admitted to his girlfriend and cousins that he had shot M.S. because the teen had tried “gay ass shit.”
“I shot a nigga,” he also wrote in a Facebook message a few days later to another person. “He was being gay af and following me like a mf.”
Robinson was arrested on June 3, 2019, but not before he had searched online for coverage of the attack and made efforts to avoid capture by shaving off his Afro and trying to ditch his gun.
He also searched Google for, among other things, “How to know if the police are looking for you,” “When will police arrest you after a murder,” and “How to get away with murder in real life.”
When Robinson is sentenced on Dec. 15, he could be sent to prison for life without parole.
A lawyer for Robinson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Robinson was indicted by a federal grand jury on Aug. 10, 2021. He was charged with one count of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a federal law passed in 2009 to criminalize acts of violence motivated by the victim’s identity.
Photo Courtesy: Kansas City, Kansas Public Library
