By Ryan Thompson
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

JAY STREET — The two men convicted of homicide in the hate-crime killing of a Ecuadorian man in Bushwick will be sentenced together, a Brooklyn judge has decided.

Kings County Supreme Court Justice Patricia Di Mango adjourned Hakim Scott’s sentencing date Wednesday to Aug. 5, to coincide with the day his co-defendant, Keith Phoenix, will be sentenced.

After being acquitted of murder and hate-crime charges, but convicted of manslaughter, Scott was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday for participating in the killing of the Ecuadorean immigrant last December. He faces a possible 25 years in prison.

Several week ago, Phoenix was convicted of the murder as a hate crime during his retrial. He could face life in prison.

Phoenix, 30, and Scott, 26, were originally tried together for killing Jose Sucuzhanay and attacking Jose’s brother, Romel Sucuzhanay. But the two defendants had separate juries, and Phoenix’s jury couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict.

The brothers were walking home from a bar after a party at a Brooklyn church on Dec. 7, 2008. Romel Sucuzhanay had put his coat around his brother to keep him warm and was helping him walk because he was drunk.

Meanwhile, Scott and Phoenix, also leaving a party, pulled up in a sport utility vehicle. They began yelling anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs, according to Assistant District Attorney Josh Hanshaft.

Jose Sucuzhanay became upset and tried to kick the wheel of the SUV, and Scott got out and smashed the beer bottle on his head, then chased Romel Sucuzhanay down the block with it, according to trial testimony. Phoenix grabbed a bat from the back of the SUV and attacked Jose Sucuzhanay, cracking his skull with the bat, according to testimony.

The two drove away in the SUV and were captured about 20 minutes later on surveillance footage crossing the Triborough Bridge — since renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge — into the Bronx.

Prosecutors ended their closing arguments by showing the footage of Phoenix on the bridge, smiling. Scott was convicted in May of manslaughter but acquitted of a more serious murder charge, and the jury found his actions were not a hate crime.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press.

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