Violent Beating Of "Gay" Man Described As Brooklyn Murder/Hate Crime Trial Begins

[Bluebear]

The Ecuadorian brothers were evidently arm-in-arm and met this fate...

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Nearly a year and a half after Jose Sucuzhanay was fatally beaten in Brooklyn, his accused killers are on trial. Prosecutors said that Keith Scott and Hakim Phoenix mistook Sucuzhanay and his brother for a gay couple (the brothers were tipsy) and shouted gay and racial epithets at them. Prosecutor Joshua Hanshaft said that Phoenix actually returned to deliver the final, fatal blows: Phoenix beat Sucuzhany "over and over again with the bat held high above his head... Jose tried to get up... and (Phoenix) came back with the bat and beat him two to three times on the head, cracking his skull wide open."

Prosecutors say that Scott initially hit Sucuzhanay, an Ecuadorian immigrant who had a realty business in Brooklyn, with a bottle and then chased Romel Sucuzhanay with the remaining shards. However, Scott's lawyer said his client never meant to "seriously physically harm anyone... This was never about hate. This was never about prejudice," while Phoenix's lawyer mentioned how all four men had been drinking, "Does anything good happen at 3 o’clock on a Sunday morning in 30-degree weather, with people with bellies full of booze?" Scott and Phoenix face charges of murder as a hate crime and could face life in prison if convicted.

A cab driver, Davi Almonte, witnessed the beating and called the police with the license plate number for the SUV that Scott and Phoenix were in. Almonte testified that the beatings were loud, “I didn’t want to see the head explode when it was hit. I could hear the impact."

http://gothamist.com/2010/04/21/brooklyn_hate_crime_murder_trial_be.php