Trial Underway In Brooklyn Anti-Gay Hate Crime Murder Case

In December 2008, Ecuadorian immigrant Jose Sucuzhanay (left) was brutally beaten to death with a baseball bat by two men who mistakenly thought that Sucuzhanay and his brother were gay lovers. The case gained international attention and brought together LGBT and immigrant right groups for massive protests at the scene of the murder in Brooklyn. The two murderers are now on trial and Duncan Osbourne at Gay City News provides a chilling recounting of the testimony of a cab driver witness.

“I didn’t want to see the head explode when it was hit,” said Davi Almonte, who testified through an interpreter on April 20. “I could hear the impact.” [snip] “The one that came out hit him with a bottle on the head,” Almonte said, adding that the man who was hit “went down to the floor.” He then saw another man strike José “around seven, eight times” with a bat. “Did you see either brother fighting back at that time?” asked Josh Hanshaft, an assistant district attorney who is prosecuting the case along with Patricia M. McNeill, also an assistant district attorney. “No,” Almonte said.

One of the assailants reportedly called the brothers "faggot ass niggers" as he beat them. The second brother survived. Both of the men on trial face 78 years to life in prison for murder as a hate crime. My complete archive on the attack is here.