Keith Phoenix and Hakim Scott, the two Brooklyn men who fatally beat Ecuadorean immigrant Jose Sucuzhanay as he walked home from a night of drinking with his brother because they perceived Sucuzhanay to be gay, were sentenced today:
"Justice Patricia M. DiMango of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn sentenced Mr. Phoenix, who was convicted in June of murder and assault as hate crimes, to 37 years to life in prison. She sentenced Mr. Scott, who was convicted of manslaughter and assault but cleared of more serious hate-crime charges, to 37 years.
Mr. Phoenix, who was arrested nearly three months after the crime as he hid in the bathroom of an apartment in Yonkers, was tried twice. His first trial, in May, had ended with the jury deadlocked. When he was arrested, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said that he showed no remorse."
Sucuzhanay and his brother were attacked with a bottle and a baseball bat while Phoenix and Scott shouted anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs.