The second man arrested in the hate crime killing of an Ecuadorian immigrant is presenting a very different story of the fight that led to the death of Jose Sucuzhaynay. The accusations have been that the two murder suspects, Keith Phoenix and Hakim Scott, targeted the late Jose Sucuzhaynay and his brother because the pair of brothers appeared to be gay. Instead, Phoenix says that one of the Sucuzhaynays provoked the fight by kicking in the door of the car that Phoenix was driving. He says that as the fight escalated, Sucuzhaynay reached into his waistband for what Phoenix thought was a weapon, inciting the fatal beating.
During Phoenix's arraignment, his lawyer Jay Schwitzman told the court, "Mr. Phoenix went to break up the fight, and during the fight, there was a weapon brandished by the deceased...It is not gay bashing or a hate crime." The lawyer also countered Friday's accounts from Police Commissioner Ray Kelly that painted Phoenix as a cold-blooded killer who questioned, "What's the big deal?" Schwitzman said that Phoenix is "remorseful and he recognizes the seriousness" of the accusations against him.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne reasserted that no weapon that would have possibly been brandished by either of the Sucuzhaynay brothers had been found. Browne said plainly, “The facts do not support that version of events." A lawyer for Sucuzhaynay added, "We definitely believe those allegations are insulting to the victims, alleging that the perpetrators were acting in self-defense.”
Another Sucuzhaynay brother told the News, "That's amazing. I don't think people are naive enough to believe that...Criminals will make up anything."
