Aaron Price faces 10 years in prison for attacking a fellow Morehouse College student but was acquitted of what prosecutors argued was a hate crime, motivated by anti-gay feelings.

A jury ruled that Price did not commit a hate crime when he beat Gregory Love with a baseball bat in a dorm shower.

Price, 19, was instead convicted of aggravated assault and aggravated battery in the Nov. 3 attack. Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter sentenced Price to 10 years for each count, to run concurrently.

If jurors had found Price guilty of a hate crime, he could have received five additional years in prison on each count. He will have to serve at least nine years.

As he stood to receive his sentence, Price said softly: "I would like to take responsibility for my action. I was responsible for being part of the incident."

The judge, clearly irritated, responded, "Then what was the trial about?"

Baxter said he had expected a plea bargain agreement last week that Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said would have sent Price to jail for five years.

"You can blame the lawyer," said defense attorney Tony Axam, who joined Price's legal team shortly before the trial began Monday.

"You mean you told him you could get him off?" the judge asked Axam.

"I don't say things that way," Axam replied, "but the intention was there." Afterward, the lawyer explained the decision not to accept the plea agreement by saying, "Aaron didn't want to go to prison."

As Price was led away by court officers, dozens of his family members and friends hugged each other and wept. One woman wailed, "My baby! My baby! Oh, God!"

Members of Love's family quietly left the courtroom after the trial, escorted by bailiffs. Love and his family declined to talk to reporters.

Confrontation turns violent

During the sentencing phase of the trial, Love, who has testified that he is not gay, said: "It's not been easy. I'd just like Mr. Price to know that, as a Christian, I forgive him. . . . It's not easy. But I will be strong, and I will be OK."

Price testified he was taking a shower in the dormitory when Love looked into the stall, staring at him. The two exchanged curses, he said, and Price left the shower and returned with a 26-inch baseball bat.

Price told the court that Love rushed from the shower, throwing punches at him, and he hit Love once with the bat in self-defense.

Love testified Price screamed "faggot" and other anti-gay epithets before leaving the shower and returning with the bat.

Love, a Morehouse junior majoring in music and political science, underwent surgery for a blood clot on the brain from injuries that left a scar from his hairline to his ear.

Assistant Fulton County District Attorney Holly Hughes asked the jury to remember the words Price allegedly uttered "when he beat [Love] with a baseball bat: 'Faggot, you're gay, gay. . . . I hate these Morehouse faggots.' "

The state's hate crime law "is not a gay rights statute, it is a statute of simple human rights," Hughes said.

Axam argued that his client was simply defending himself against Love, a taller man. "The question you need to ask is if the defendant intentionally selected a victim," said Axam.

Prosecutor Kellie Hill countered in her closing argument: "You cannot beat a man just because they looked at you."

Several people testified on Price's behalf during the sentencing part of the trial, including his father and grandfather. They portrayed the Chicago native, who maintained a 3.75 grade-point average before being expelled from Morehouse after the attack, as a gentle, kind young man who had never been in trouble and went out of his way to help others.

Price's father, the Rev. Jerome Price, said it was "totally out of character for Aaron to demonstrate anger."

Said C.J. Price: "I sit here with a sad heart. I hate to see my grandson go to prison."

Judge Baxter interrupted the grandfather. "No one has yet to take responsibility for anything, or to apologize," Baxter said. "What I've listened to is the victim be put on trial for three days."

Reaction to verdict

While the courtroom was marked by commotion, the Morehouse campus in west Atlanta was quiet. Few students were around. Those who were on campus at the predominantly African-American, all-male school had little to say about the case.

Chris Moore, a 22-year-old business major senior from Columbia, said he was satisfied with the verdict.

"I do think he deserved to be found guilty. He did attack the guy," Moore said. But he said he didn't think the attack was a hate crime. "I just think he overreacted to a situation where he felt uncomfortable."

In a statement issued after the verdict, Morehouse President Walter Massey said the imprisonment of the former student "only adds to the tragedy of this incident." Massey added: "Morehouse remains committed to our efforts to foster an environment on our campus where no act of violence is tolerated -- regardless of its motivation."

Reaction from members of the gay rights community was swift.

"I'm highly disappointed," said Donna Payne of the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, a gay rights advocacy group that worked with Morehouse officials on what it said was campus homophobia. "Until we recognize what a hate crime really is, we're in trouble."

"Only in Georgia could someone who admitted to beating somebody within an inch of their life because they made a sexual advance toward them be acquitted," said Kevin Bynes, a member of Safe Space For All, a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender group at Morehouse.

Allen Thornell, executive director of Georgia Equality, a gay rights group, said he believes that Love, even though he is not gay, was put on trial.

"It is as though a gay act is so reprehensible, that if someone receives a sexual advance from a gay person, any reasonable person would take a bat to them. . . . But just think if it was a woman. If every woman who received a sexual advance took a bat to the man, there wouldn't be many men around now," Thornell said.

"We're not where we need to be to realize what he did was a hate crime," said J. Lawrence Warren, executive director of My Brothaz Keeper in Atlanta, a support group for young African-American men who may be gay. "It's obvious he was guilty of a hate crime."

The author of Georgia's hate crime law, state Sen. Vincent Fort of Atlanta, said he was not disappointed that the beating was found not to be a hate crime.

"Ten years to serve is a lot of time for a first-time offender," Fort said. "I'm not sure a message wasn't sent. The judge made it very clear that this kind of conduct . . . will not be tolerated."

James B. Jacobs, a New York University law professor, also was not surprised that Price was acquitted of a hate crime.

"Those types of cases are very difficult to prove," said Jacobs, whose book "Hate Crime: Criminal Law and Politics" was published in 1999. "Often, jurors have problems ferreting out someone's motivation and getting inside a defendant's head. And once you scratch the surface of a case, you can find mixed motivations."

Thornell said the case marked some progress on the issue of gay rights and hate crimes.

"It wasn't so many years ago that it was illegal to be gay in Georgia," he said. "There has been a slow awakening to these issues, and the education process isn't complete."

Staff writers Bill Rankin, Paul Donsky, Add Seymour and Craig Schneider contributed to this article.

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