A woman convicted of beating a deaf lesbian couple with a baseball bat in Desert Hot Springs, California, was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison.
According to KMIR, 32-year-old Shaunda Lane attacked the couple, who had recently moved to town from Indiana, on March 14 following an argument and has prior felony convictions. SDGLN reports that the couple were beaten after trying to ask Lane to leave their property using sign language.
One woman suffered hand and arm injuries, and the other got a concussion, according to a GoFundMe page set up to raise money to help the couple. The GoFundMe page met its goal, raising more than $2,300 for the couple to cover medical costs.
The morning after the attack, according to page creator “Team Mom,” the women’s home was broken into and their phones were destroyed. Still, local law enforcement didn’t consider the assault a hate crime.
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“Someone was greatly offended. We don’t think she knew they were deaf, and she was offended by their mannerisms, by not being able to communicate and shooing her off their property,” said Chief Dale Mondary of the Desert Hot Springs Police Department.
“And in this particular case, the motive appears to be just some irrational conclusion by an offended party, who came back and assaulted them.”
