Sleeping Gay Couple Severely Burned After Man Pours Boiling Water On Them

Tolbert, 21, and his 23-year-old boyfriend, Anthony Gooden, suffered second and third-degree burns because of the February attack, which occurred two days before Valentine's Day. 

Tolbert suffered burns on his neck, arms and face and spent 10 days at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. Gooden was severely burned across his entire face and 60% of his body, including his neck, back, arms and chest, according to a GoFundMe page posted by his cousin to raise money for hospital bills. Gooden spent about a month in the hospital and was released Friday, Tolbert told Project Q Atlanta, an LGBTQ blog.

The couple was sleeping in an apartment in the Atlanta suburb of College Park that Gooden shares with his mother when his mother's boyfriend, Martin Blackwell, allegedly tossed the boiling water on them. Tolbert shot up, hit a wall near the bed and started flailing around, screaming uncontrollably.

"Martin pulled me up and said, 'Get out of my house with all that gay,'" Tolbert told WSB-TV. "I couldn't stop screaming.” The men's burns were so bad, doctors had to graft skin from their legs to heal them. Tolbert said he can't even go outside because his skin is so sensitive, it feels like the sun's warmth is burning his body all over again.

Martin Blackwell.