Family accused of trying to murder son’s ‘boyfriend’ and leaving him blind appear in court
The family have been accused of breaking into a gay man’s house and assaulting him (Image Credit: Breward Sheriff’s Office
A family accused of beating a gay man so badly that he was left blind are facing attempted murder charges.
Yevhen and Inna Makarenko, alongside their son Oleh, 21, appeared in court on 4 January, having been accused of breaking into the home of a man who says he was in a relationship with Oleh and beating him so severely he thought he was going to die.
In addition to losing sight in one eye, the victim also suffered brain trauma, a blood infection, and several broken bones.
The victim claimed he was targeted by the family in August 2021 because he and Oleh had been dating for nine months.
He told told Fox affiliate WSVN in May that Oleh “was a little afraid of his family or very afraid of his family”, who would not accept his sexuality.
“He was telling me that his dad was treating him like he wasn’t even his child, that his mom was trying to force him to marry a girl, and I’m quoting what his mom said to him. She wanted him to force him to marry a girl to take all this out of his head.”
The victim said that the family came to his home a couple of weeks after he and Oleh took a break and forced their way in.
“They were definitely trying to kill me. They were trying to hurt me,” he said.
“I was thinking I was going to die, and there’s no way I was going to walk out of here alive.”
The victim said that after being struck in the face with an object, he fell to the floor and played dead. He was discovered there the following afternoon by deputies responding to an unrelated call-out.
Initially, the victim said he had sustained his injuries while drunk, which he claims he said only to protect Oleh.
According to CBS, the parents and their son are facing attempted murder, battery, kidnapping and hate crime charges.
The family have denied all allegations.
Oleh said: “The state knows that he’s lying. The state knows that they don’t have any evidence to support it.
“The only thing they apparently don’t know is that we have the evidence to prove our innocence.”
The case will go on trial on 27 January.
