Shortly after midnight on September 2, 2013, Brice Johnson, then 19, began a conversation with Arron Keahey on MeetMe.com, a social-networking platform that would change both of their lives.
Over the next few hours, the two men exchanged messages, many of them sexually explicit, before Johnson gave Keahey directions to his house and his cell phone number. Keahey identified himself as gay on his profile; Johnson's said he was straight. Keahey headed over to Johnson's house anyway, because the messages indicated Johnson wanted to have sex with Keahey. Johnson continued to send Keahey sexual text messages as Keahey was en route to his house.
Keahey arrived at Johnson's place at about 5:30 a.m. When he did, Johnson repeatedly struck Keahey in the head, tied him up with an electrical cord and tossed him the trunk of his own car.
Johnson then drove the car to a family friend's house. Once there, people at the house heard Keahey pleading for help from the trunk. They told Johnson that if he didn't take Keahey to the hospital they would call the police. Johnson eventually moved Keahey from the trunk to the back seat and drove him to an emergency medical services station in Springtown, a town 20 miles northwest of Fort Worth.
Keahey eventually spent 10 days at Harris Medical Hospital in Fort Worth, where he was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and treated for skull and facial fractures.
After he was arrested for the crime, Johnson repeatedly called Keahey a "fag" in jail phone calls and conversations with family members. Keahey's phone number was also stored under the name "fagg bagg" in Johnson's phone.
Johnson was subject to a life sentence after pleading guilty to kidnapping in federal court, but has been sentenced to 183 months in prison.
