KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City, Missouri, man will spend 21 years behind bars for a 2019 hate crime.
Malachi Robinson was indicted in August 2021 for violating the Matthew Shepard and James Bird Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.
Robinson allegedly had a chance meeting on May 29, 2019, with the victim at the Kansas City Public Library. The two briefly conversed via Facebook Messenger before meeting outside.
Court documents say the two walked for a while in the Swope Park area until Robinson suggested the two enter a wooded area “under the guise of looking for a place to engage in a sex act.”
As the two continued walking, Robinson texted his girlfriend suggesting he “might shoot this boy” because of his sexual orientation, per court documents.
When Robinson and the victim entered a wooded area and the victim turned to leave, Robinson shot the victim eight times with a 9-mm handgun.
The court says the victim survived but “has since suffered long-term effects of the shooting,” including multiple surgeries.
In July 2022, Robinson pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Bird Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
“Such callous disregard for the life of a teenage victim, gravely wounded in a failed murder attempt, must be challenged by a commitment to protect the civil rights of all our citizens. When those rights are threatened, the Justice Department will act to hold the violators accountable,” per a July 7, 2022, Department of Justice news release.
Robinson was sentenced Thursday, April 20, 2023, to 21 years and 10 months in federal prison without parole, according to the United States Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Missouri.
“This sentencing validates that bias-motivated crimes will not be tolerated and demonstrates law enforcement’s continued commitment to aggressively investigate and bring to justice those responsible for these heinous crimes,” Special Agent in Charge Charles Dayoub of the FBI’s Kansas City Field Office said in the court’s release Thursday.
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