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 He said he intended to rob his victim not kill him.

An Idaho man has pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime in the death of a gay man in exchange for a chance at 28-year sentence instead of life in prison.

Twenty-three-year-old Kelly Schneider on Tuesday pleaded guilty to wilful assault based on sexual orientation, resulting in death, in U.S. District Court in Boise.

“Steven Nelson was assaulted and later died because he was gay,” Wendy Olson, former U.S. Attorney for Idaho, said in a statement.

Schneider was contacted by Nelson the evening of April 27 after Schneider posted a shirtless photograph of himself in a solicitation for sex on the website backpage.com.

Before that encounter, Schneider told his friends that he was not gay and would not let anyone who was touch him, prosecutors said.

He arranged to go with Nelson on April 29 to an isolated area within Deer Flat Wildlife Refuge in southwest Idaho with the promise of a sexual encounter.

Instead, Schneider attacked Nelson at the wildlife area, kicking him between 20 and 30 times with steel-toed boots while repeatedly using a homophobic slur.

 

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