JACKSONVILLE, Fla., March 25 (UPI) -- A Jacksonville, Fla., man was convicted Thursday of beating a nightclub disc jockey and leaving him for dead on the street with his eyes cut out.
Foster Rayfield Leon, 32, of Jacksonville's Five Points section, was found guilty of attempted second-degree murder and kidnapping in the brutal attack on Anthony Blakely, 40, who had worked July 4, 2008, as a disc jockey at a Jacksonville club, The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union reported.
Leon was at the club and started talking with Blakely outside the club later, Blakely testified.
Then Blakely was knocked unconscious, Blakely testified, and came to a few minutes later missing a piece of his right ear.
Blakely walked a half block, blacked out again, and when he awoke on a different street, he found himself being viciously beating by Leon, Blakely testified.
When he woke up in a pool of blood about 2:30 a.m., he felt his eyeballs on the side of his head and didn't know if he was in the afterlife, he said.
Prosecutors said Leon was angry at Blakely over a comment Blakely made about a girl that he didn't know was Leon's girlfriend.
Defense lawyers blamed the attack on an unidentified group of people possibly connected with a riot that broke out at another Five Points club the same night.
Leon faces up to life in prison.
Jacksonville ophthalmologist Vikram Brar testified earlier Thursday Blakely's eyeballs were cut with a sharp instrument during the attack.
