Hate crime charges were added in a terrible attack last summer that left a gay Louisiana teenager in a coma for three days.
Lafayette’s Holden White was just 18 when he met Chance Seneca, 19, on the gay dating app Grindr. After communicating for a month, the two young men decided to meet in person in late June.
White, a sophomore at Louisiana State University, Eunice, said she invited Seneca to her new apartment, but Seneca convinced him to go to his father’s house to play video games.
After an awkward conversation, White said that his next memory is to be pulled back by a rope and suffocated so badly that “all the blood vessels on my face burst” before he passed out.
White said that when he regained consciousness, he was naked in a bathtub looking at Seneca cutting his left wrist.
“I remember thinking, ‘Well, that’s it,'” he told The Acadiana Advocate. “The last words I said to myself were ‘stay calm’. Over and over and over in my head, I was just repeating to myself to stay calm. “
According to the local news website, Seneca called 911 and told the dispatcher that she had killed a man. He was at the house when the police responded.
White suffered knife wounds, blunt trauma to the back of his head and cuts on his wrists that were so deep that his hands were almost cut off. He spent almost a month in the hospital and in rehab.
“When I woke up, I didn’t remember anything. I didn’t remember going to his place, ”White told NBC News. “The human mind, since then, I learned, blocks traumatic experiences.”
Since then, details of the encounter have surfaced as his body continues to heal. The scars on his neck, where White said Seneca took the tip of a knife and repeatedly twisted his throat, have already started to disappear.
He has recovered most of his right hand use, but his left hand is still numb and has no full grip strength. His left hand was damaged more severely – the artery and several tendons were cut – and he may need more surgery.
He also suffered from some short-term memory problems.
Seneca was arrested on the spot and charged with attempted second-degree murder, and remains on $ 250,000 bond.
The police initially refused to include hate crime charges, claiming to believe that the attack resulted from an argument between the two men.
“There were several indicators that point us in the direction that it was not a hate crime”, the sergeant. Wayne Griffin, of the Lafayette Police Department, told The Acadiana Advocate shortly after the initial charges were filed. “Just because of the delicacy of the case, we cannot go into more detail about it.”
Griffin declined to comment further this week and referred NBC News to the FBI.
Alicia Irmscher, an FBI public relations officer in New Orleans, said the agency was aware of the incident, but did not say whether it was conducting an investigation.
White, however, said he was talking to FBI agents and Lafayette Parish’s district attorney about the case.
The hate crime charges, which carry an extra sentence of five years in prison, were added by the public prosecutor on January 20.
Despite initial police doubts, White is adamant that he was the target because he is a gay man.
“He chose to use the Grindr app,” he told the local news station KATC-TV. “He chose a gay app. He chose to choose someone who is gay and is very proud of his sexuality. He said that in prison. He said he chose me because I am smaller and it would be easier to kill myself. He knew what he was doing. “
But he is still frustrated with how the police department handled the case and how long it took for the attack to be classified as a hate crime.
“For them, ending this as a boyfriend fight is just unbelievable,” he said. “Let’s say we got into an argument, which didn’t happen, who would go to that point because of an idiotic argument? Hitting someone on the back of the head with a hammer? To try to cut your hands? “
He remembers being questioned by police officers in his hospital room the day after he came out of his coma. “They asked me the most brutal questions while I was still sedated,” he said. “They just bombed me. When I think about it, it’s just sad. “
He also said he did not understand why the police failed to provide hospital staff with a rape kit to determine whether he had been sexually abused. “It scares me not to know and never to know,” he said.
He believes his sexuality may be a factor in how the department handled the case.
“There has always been homophobia in southern Louisiana, so if that were part of it, I wouldn’t be surprised,” he said. “I don’t want to think about it, but I can’t help it. When we go to court, I’m still going to thank the police for arresting that man, but that’s all I can thank them for. “
If the case goes to trial, White knows he will probably have to relive the worst episode of his life. But he says he is ready for this.
“It is not a question of me having to think about it again. I have cross-shaped scars on my wrist – I never stop thinking about it, ”he said, adding that he is eager to give his victim’s statement of impact.
“I know that some people cry or get upset. I will not. I will talk to him properly and tell him how I feel. I want him to know that he doesn’t scare me. Once I’m done, I’ll be ready to get over it, ”he said.
Seneca’s lawyer, J. Clay LeJeune, said the additional hate crime charge came “as a complete surprise”.
“I have not received any information from the state supporting this position,” he told NBC News by email. “We will be filing a plea of guilt from the original and changed charge.”
Seneca’s next pre-trial hearing is scheduled for March 2.
Attacks based on sexual orientation accounted for 16.8% of all hate crimes in 2019, statistics from last year were available in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. This represents the third largest category after race and religion.
But reporting incidents of prejudice is not mandatory, and Lafayette is one of hundreds of cities that reported no hate crimes in the year.
White said he was moved by the show of support he received, including a GoFundMe campaign for his recovery that earned more than $ 100,000. “I didn’t expect to hear from people all over the world – I received text messages from people in Australia myself,” he shared. “At the same time, my story was kind of swept under the carpet in the beginning. People in my home state are saying that they just heard about it now. “
There were also cruel comments on social media and message topics. White said he sometimes jumps into a news article and replies. “They need to hear the full story. What if someone reads that comment and thinks, ‘Oh, maybe it’s true?’ “
He urges other hate crime victims to advocate for themselves and not just rely on the system for justice.
“Never give up – if you stop trying or talking about your case, it can be swept away and just disappear.”
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