Screenshot via WSB-TV 2
An Atlanta-area gay couple is recovering after a homophobic man allegedly threw a pot of boiling water on them while they slept. Marquez Tolbert, 21, has second- and third-degree burns on his arms, back, and neck; he has spent 10 days at an Atlanta hospital undergoing graft surgery using some skin from his thigh to replace the burned skin on his back. “The pain doesn’t let you sleep. It’s just, like, it’s excruciating, 24 hours a day, and it doesn’t go anywhere,” Tolbert told a reporter. “It doesn’t dial down, anything. It’s just there.” Tolbert’s partner, Anthony Gooden, was also severely burned. The men were attacked by Gooden’s mother’s boyfriend, who allegedly walked in on them sleeping in Gooden’s apartment and poured the water on them. The attack happened last month, and Gooden was released from the hospital last Friday. The suspected assailant, Martin Blackwell, 48, is still in jail on two counts of aggravated battery. According to a police report, Blackwell said: “They’ll be all right. It was just a little hot water on them.”