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."
The jury had been deliberating for three days (Phoenix's friend and co-defendant was found guilty of manslaughter last week) and the jurors told the judge they could not deliberate any longer. All but one had agreed to find Phoenix guilty of murder, but not of hate crime charges, while the holdout wanted to convict him of manslaughter (but not of hate crime charges). The Daily News reports that Justice Patricia DiMango said, "I can't see any other action but to declare a mistrial at this time," "several jurors to burst into tears."
While prosecutors said that Phoenix and his friends targeted Sucuzhanay and his brother Romel, thinking they were gay, the defense claimed that the fatal beating was the just the unfortunate result of a drunk street fight. He told the News last year, "I'm not a killer. I never expected anyone to die... I have remorse for the death.... I looked at it as just a street fight that went bad." Phoenix's mother, who called out to him after the mistrial, "I love you baby," told reporters, "It was justice."
The new trial will be next month; Romel Sucuzhanay said, "My family, we feel very worried. The evidence was there. I hope that we have success in the new one."
