Results tagged “anthonyfortunato”

A year after Michael Sandy was lured to a parking lot at Plumb Beach in Brooklyn under the pretense of a sexual encounter and then killed in an attempted robbery, the spot on Sheepshead Bay continues to be a place where men congregate for furtive homosexual encounters. John Fox and Anthony Fortunato were both convicted last week of manslaughter as a hate crime in the death of Sandy, who was struck by a car on the Belt Parkway, where Fox and Ilya Shurov chased him. The violent crime doesn't seem to be deterring the men who still sit by themselves in their cars, smoking and waiting––for what isn't entirely clear. The New York Times sent a reporter to observe the scene in the parking lot Friday night. He approached one of the cars and the driver said he had heard of Sandy's death and the parking lot's reputation, but that wasn't why he was there. Nonetheless, the older gentleman drove off with a younger man who approached his car soon thereafter. A perfunctory search of gay cruising sites indicates that Plumb Beach is still a popular site for meetings. One site rated the rest stop parking lot as 3 ("Average") out of 5 for safety and 5 ("Hot!") out of 5 for action [Warning: site page contains graphic images].

Anthony Fortunato was found guilty of manslaughter as a hate crime yesterday, after intense arguments by the jury. He was the second man found guilty of the crime. Fortunato was accused of killing Michael Sandy in a hate crime after luring him to a known gay cruising spot at Plumb Beach in Brooklyn. The encounter ended with Sandy being chased and beaten onto the Belt Parkway where he was struck by a car and later died. Fortunato's defense claimed that he himself was gay and that the luring of Sandy to a secluded area was an exploratory gay experience gone wrong.

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: An armored robbery in Queens, a boat in distress east of the Steeplechase Pier in Brooklyn and a school bus accident in Staten Island. The bids are in for the West Side Yards, and the companies that submitted them are Extell Development Company, Brookfield Properties Developer LLC, The Related Companies, TS West Side Holding, LLC (A Joint Venture of Tishman Speyer and Morgan Stanley), and Hudson Center East LLC...

The three men accused of murdering Michael Sandy as part of a hate crime last year appeared in a Brooklyn courthouse yesterday. According to The New York Times, they struck humble poses––wearing ill-fitting suits and displaying good manners to courtroom personnel––that belie the joking manner they treated the alleged murder of a man chased onto the Belt Parkway, where he was struck by a car. The youngest of the four men accused in the crime, 17-year-old Gary Timmins, already pleaded guilty to attempted robbery as a hate crime and agreed to testify against Anthony Fortunato, Ilya Shurov and John Fox, who are now charged with murder as a hate crime, which carries a relatively stiffer penalty than simply murder.

Supreme Court Justice Jill Konviser has ruled that the three men charged in the murder of Michael Sandy can be charged with murder as a hate crime. Last October, Anthony Fortunato, John Fox, and Ilya Shurov had lured Michael Sandy through a gay chat room to meet them near the Belt Parkway. When Sandy arrived, they robbed and beat him, causing him to flee into the highway and get hit by a car. Sandy was critically injured and after many days, his family decided to turn take him off life support.

Last October, the Brooklyn DA's office charged three men with murder as a hate crime after a gay man they had lured, beat, robbed and chased into traffic died from his injuries. But now the trio's lawyers claim that it was not a hate crime, but a crime of opportunity.

Last fall, three men were charged with hate crimes in the October death of Michael Sandy. Prosecutors charged that lya Shurov, Anthony Fortunato, and John Fox had gone to a gay chat room, lured Sandy to Plum Beach, and then robbed and beat him. Sandy ran into the Belt Parkway and died from injuries sustained when he was hit by traffic. Sandy had been in a coma for six days; family took him off a respirator the day after his birthday.

Three men were indicted yesterday for murder and attempted robbery as hate crimes in the Belt Parkway death of Michael Sandy. Ilya Shurov, Anthony Fortunato, and John Fox are accused of going to a gay chat room and asking Sandy to meet them at Plum Beach off the Belt Parkway. There, the three men are suspected of robbing and beating Sandy, who then ran to the highway and was hit by a car. Sandy lay brain dead in a coma for a few days until his family decided to take him off the life support. The Brooklyn DA's office explained how the incident could be classified as a hate crime:

Typically, according to state law, Hate Crimes are charged when prosecutors believe the defendants acted out of bias against the victims’ race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation. But the less used section of the law calls for Hate Crimes to be charged when the defendant “intentionally selects the person against whom the offense is committed or intended to be committed based on a belief about those same factors.

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