At trial in stabbing, mother testifies defendant isn’t anti-gay | The Sacramento Bee

Word that three popular local musicians attacked on a street corner by a knife-wielding man who hurled anti-gay slurs shocked and disturbed Sacramento’s tight-knit midtown. Months after the late-night attack, the suspect’s mother took the stand at his assault trial Tuesday in Sacramento Superior Court to tell how her son embraced her own longtime same-sex relationship.

Timothy Brownell, 25, faces assault charges stemming from the attack on musicians Alex Lyman, Blake Abbey and Weston Richmond outside the Press Club bar at 21st and O streets in the early hours of June 22, 2015.

Prosecutors allege Brownell lobbed the homophobic slurs while stabbing Abbey, lead singer for the band Musical Charis in the arm and guitarist Lyman of Slaves in the side, narrowly missing his spleen. Richmond suffered a broken hand and suffered minor cuts in the bloody incident. Sacramento police also investigated the attack as a hate crime in response to claims on social media that Brownell targeted the men because they wore skinny jeans.

At trial in stabbing, mother testifies defendant isn’t anti-gay | The Sacramento Bee