Two men who killed an Ecuadorean immigrant on a Brooklyn street in December 2008 were each sentenced today. Prosecutors had said that Keith Phoenix and Hakim Scott brutally beat Jose Sucuzhanay because they thought he was gay (Sucuzhanay was walking arm-in-arm with his brother) and yelled anti-Hispanic and anti-gay epithets during the attack. Phoenix got 37 years to life (25 years for murder as a hate crime, plus 12 years for attempted assault as a hate crime), while Scott received 37 years (25 years for manslaughter and 12 years for attempted assault). more ›

Yesterday, a jury took seven hours to convict a man of second degree murder as a hate crime and attempted assault as a hate crime in the killing of an Ecuadorean immigrant in December 2008. Keith Phoenix, whose previous trial ended in mistrial, now faces life in prison. more ›

Yesterday, after a Brooklyn jury said it could not deliberate any further, a judge called a mistrial in the case of a man accused of killing an Ecuadorean immigrant. Keith Phoenix had pleaded not guilty to second degree murder, manslaughter, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and hate crime charges related to the death of Jose Sucuzhanay, who Phoenix admitted to fatally striking with a baseball bat while allegedly calling him racial and homophobic epithets. One juror explained, "We hated to go all this way and not have a verdict. Believe me, there was a lot of crying in that jury room, a lot of arguing. It was just one stubborn, selfish woman." more ›

Yesterday, a jury found Hakim Scott guilty of manslaughter in the 2008 fatal beating of an Ecuadorean immigrant. Prosecutors Scott and his friend Keith Phoenix attacked Jose Sucuzhanay and his brother because they thought the brothers were gay, since they were holding hands while walking down a Brooklyn street. Scott, who was acquitted of hate crime charges as well as murder, faces up to 40 years in prison. more ›

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." more ›

Jury selection starts today for the trial of Hakim Scott and Keith Phoenix, who are accused of fatally beating Jose Sucuzhanay in Brooklyn last year. Police say Scott and Phoenix beat Sucuzhanay (pictured), an Ecuadorian immigrant who owned a real estate agency, because they thought he was gay (anti-gay and anti-Hispanic epithets were allegedly yelled), when he was really just tipsy and walking arm-in-arm with his brother. Cops also say Phoenix confessed ("So I killed someone—that makes me a bad guy?"), claiming self-defense. Scott recently turned down a plea deal for 18 years, insisting, "I didn't kill nobody." more ›

Today's Post reveals for the first time that there was a third man in the SUV with the Keith Phoenix and Hakim Scott the night of the attack on the late Jose Sucuzhanay and his brother Romel last December in Bushwick. The paper says that the unnamed man did not participate in the attack and is now under police protection since he will testify against his friends. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has unsealed the indictments against the two men charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and assault—all as hate crimes. Hynes said, "The acts which we charge this morning are no less despicable because the victims Jose and Romel Sucuzhañay were not gay.” The DA says that Romel was putting a jacket around his brother on the cold December night when they were spotted by the pair of Bronx men who then allegedly beat Jose with a bottle and a bat. Both Scott and Phoenix are expected to plead not guilty to the crimes that could land them 78 years to life in prison—the maximum sentence. more ›

Keith Phoenix, who was charged with killing an Ecuadorian immigrant last December, has given an interview from Rikers Island to the Daily News. He told the paper, "I'm not a killer. I never expected anyone to die." more ›

The second man arrested in the hate crime killing of an Ecuadorian immigrant is presenting a very different story of the fight that led to the death of Jose Sucuzhaynay. The accusations have been that the two murder suspects, Keith Phoenix and Hakim Scott, targeted the late Jose Sucuzhaynay and his brother because the pair of brothers appeared to be gay. Instead, Phoenix says that one of the Sucuzhaynays provoked the fight by kicking in the door of the car that Phoenix was driving. He says that as the fight escalated, Sucuzhaynay reached into his waistband for what Phoenix thought was a weapon, inciting the fatal beating. more ›

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly released a chilling account of yesterday's police interrogation of Keith Phoenix, the second man arrested this week in the hate crime murder of an Ecuadorian immigrant in Bushwick. While his partner in crime Hakim Scott was reported to have been shaken up by the death of Jose Sucuzhanay when brought in, Phoenix expressed no such remorse. Instead he asked cops, "So I killed someone—that makes me a bad guy?...What's the big deal? The guy's dead." more ›