The four young men accused of attacking a gay couple on South Beach face stiffer penalties after prosecutors charged them Thursday under Florida's hate-crime enhancement law.
The group was charged with aggravated battery committed with prejudice, which means each could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the attack that took place during Miami Beach's annual gay-pride parade.
Police say the attack happened in April after one of the victims accidentally bumped into 21-year-old Juan Carlos Lopez near a bathroom area near Ocean Drive and Sixth Street.
Lopez and his companions, Luis M. Alonso Piovet, 20; Adonis Diaz, 21; and Pablo Reinaldo Romo-Figueroa, 21, began to call the victims "maricones," an anti-gay slur in Spanish, police said.
Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.
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