SPRING, Texas (AP) - Two white teenagers severely beat and sodomized a 16-year-old Hispanic boy who they believed had tried to kiss a 12-year-old white girl at a party, authorities said. The attackers forced the boy out of the Saturday night house party, beat him and sodomized him with a metal pipe, shouting epithets "associated with being Hispanic," said Lt. John Martin with the Harris County Sheriff's Department.
They then poured bleach over the boy, apparently to destroy DNA evidence and left him for dead, authorities said. He wasn't discovered until Sunday, 12 hours after the attack.
The victim, who was not identified, suffered severe internal injuries and remained in critical condition Thursday.
"It's more than likely the boy won't live," Harris County prosecutor Mike Trent said.
Keith Robert Turner, 17, and David Henry Tuck, 18, are charged with aggravated sexual assault, investigators said. Prosecutors are considering whether to attach hate-crime charges, but unless the victim dies, the possible penalty would be the same. If the boy dies and it is ruled a hate crime, Tuck could face the death penalty, authorities said. Turner would be too young to face execution.
The case has been turned over to the homicide division, Martin said, normal procedure in severe assault cases.
Authorities set bond at $100,000 for Turner. Tuck's bond was initially set at $20,000, but it was revoked Thursday. He was being held in the Harris County Jail.
Spring is a middle-class, largely white suburb of 36,000 residents, located about 10 miles north of the Houston city line.
