Auburn police and King County prosecutors say Horne is the victim of a brutal assault and hate crime, perpetrated by the 18-year-old brother of a young woman with whom Horne spent a night.
Julian Tuimauga, of Auburn, was charged last week with first-degree assault and malicious harassment the states hate-crime statute and remains in the King County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail, jail and court records show.
From what his family has been able to piece together, Horne, a mail handler for the U.S. Postal Service who lives in Kent, had a rare Friday night off Jan. 19. He wanted to go to a particular nightclub in Seattles Pioneer Square but couldnt get in, so he went to another nearby club instead. There, he met a woman in her 20s and the two hit it off, LaDonna Horne said.
At the end of the night, she invited him back to her place in Auburn.
The next morning, the woman called a Lyft car to drive Horne home, according to his relatives and charging papers.
Tuimauga was carrying an aluminum baseball bat when he approached the Lyft driver and asked who the driver was there to pick up. The driver gave Tuimaugas sisters name as the person who had requested the ride, then watched as Tuimauga walked to a corner of the fenced yard.
A short time later, the driver saw Horne walk along the side of the house toward the driveway and heard him argue with Tuimauga, the charges say. He then heard a thump sound like a bat had struck something, according to charging papers.
The driver looked back and saw Tuimauga strike Horne in the head twice with the bat and watched him fall to the ground, the charges say.
At that point, the driver heard Tuimauga say, This is what happens when you bring black people around here, the charges say.
The Lyft driver drove away and parked two houses down, where he saw Tuimauga hit Horne three more times with the bat while he was lying unconscious on the ground, the charges say.
Part of the attack was captured by a neighbors video-surveillance camera, and the footage shows Tuimauga armed with the bat and Horne falling into the frame already unconscious, charging papers say.
While Horne was lying bloody in the front yard, Tuimauga used his cellphone to video-record the injured man while yelling racial slurs at him, the charges say.
According to the charges, Tuimauga repeatedly used the N-word.
Tuimaugas father and sister were inside the home and did not witness the attack, the charges say. But the sister told police her brother later broke down her bedroom door and called her a whore, charging papers say.
Police say Tuimauga later told detectives he was in a rage because he believed his sister and Horne had sex, the charges say.
At Harborview, doctors removed parts of Hornes skull to relieve swelling in his brain, the charges say.