The two men accused of the brutal
killing of a man they mistakenly believed to be gay are expected to
appear at a pre-trial hearing Monday morning in New York.
Hakim Scott, 25, and Keith Phoenix, 28,
are accused of the December 7, 2008 slaying of Jose Sucuzhanay, an
Ecuadorian immigrant.
Police arrested the men after video
surveillance taken at a tollboth at the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge
identified the pair. The video shows Phoenix laughing 19 minutes
after the attack.
Jose Sucuzhanay and his brother Romel
were attacked in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn while walking
home arm-in-arm from a bar. Their attackers yelled anti-gay and
anti-Latino slurs as they beat them. Police say Phoenix wielded the
death blow to the head with an aluminum bat and even returned to
strike Jose Sucuzhanay again after he noticed the 31-year-old move.
Romel Sucuzhanay managed to escape and call police.
Jose Sucuzhanay, a real estate broker,
died five days later at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens.
Both men have confessed to the crime
but insist they were only defending themselves. Police have charged
the men with second-degree murder as a hate crime.