Daniel Jenkins, 22, of Dallas, was sentenced to 23 years in prison for using the gay dating app Grindr to 'lure' gay men to an apartment where he'd assault them
A Texas man was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison for using popular LGBTQ dating app Grindr to ‘lure’ gay men to his apartment where he and three friends assaulted and robbed them at gunpoint.
Daniel Jenkins, 22, of Dallas, was sentenced Wednesday and admitted to using the dating app to target and attack nine men, ranging from 19 to 57 years old, in the Dallas area. He is the last of four men to be sentenced in connection to the scheme.
Jenkins pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to commit hate crimes, kidnapping, carjacking, one hate crime count and one count of using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
Starting in December 2017, Jenkins and his friends Michael Atkinson, Pablo Ceniceros-Deleon and Daryl Henry, all of whom are in their 20s, created fake profiles on Grindr and invited gay men to an apartment complex in Dallas.
When the men arrived, Jenkins and his friends held them at gunpoint and forced them to drive to local ATM machines to withdraw cash from their accounts. The suspects also forced the to relinquish their possessions, including their wallets, money, car keys, cars, drivers’ licenses and identification cards, credit and debit cards and cellphones.
In one case, on December 11, 2017, Jenkins admitted that the group held five victims at gunpoint before robbing, beating and sexually assaulting them while taunting them with homophobic slurs. They sexually assaulted at least three of the victims and one of the suspects is also accused of urinating and wiping human feces on at least one victim, according to the Department of Justice.
Jenkins admitted to using the dating app to target and attack nine men, ranging from 19 to 57 years old, in the Dallas area
He was the last of four men sentenced after all pleaded guilty in June to committing hate crimes starting in December 2017. In one case, the group held five victims at gunpoint before robbing, beating and sexually assaulting them
Daryl Henry was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his involvement
‘This defendant targeted innocent victims for violent crimes simply because he believed they were gay,’ Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a press release announcing Jenkin’s sentencing.
