Gays are "easy to
get." That was what the three men on trial
for the murder of Michael Sandy allegedly thought
when they planned to lure him for money and marijuana
on Oct. 8, 2006.
In a videotaped
confession at the Brooklyn supreme court on Sept.
25, one of Sandy's accused murderers, 19-year-old John Fox,
told of the planned robbery that got out of hand. The
holdup was said to be devised at the house of
codefendant Anthony Fortunato along with Ilya Shurov,
both age 20.
"I signed on my
screen name and...then [Fortunato] proceeded from my
screen name to go into the gay chat room and pick out a
guy," Fox said in the tape, according to the New York
Daily News. "And [Fortunato] was telling us
how like it's easy to get [a gay man] once you talk to
them. They'll come and meet you, and we were gonna do
it for the money."
That night at
Plumb Beach on Brooklyn’s southern shore, four men
were waiting for 28-year-old Sandy, an interior
designer for Ikea, who lived in the Williamsburg
section of Brooklyn.
Plumb Beach,
which runs parallel to the Belt Parkway, is a well-known
location for cruising and trysts.
The
prosecution’s leading witness, 17-year-old Gary
Timmins, was in Fortunato's room when Sandy was
allegedly lured to Plumb Beach. Timmins pleaded guilty
to robbery and received a four-year sentence in
exchange for his testimony for the prosecution.
Upon meeting
Sandy, Fox allegedly took him to a sand dune where the
others were hiding. It was there that Shurov allegedly beat
Sandy, who tried to run away. He was reportedly chased
into traffic on the Belt Parkway, where he was hit by
oncoming traffic, leaving him critically injured.
Sandy was taken
to Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center after
the suspects fled the scene. He was placed on life support
for five days and his family was told that he would
not survive the attack. Sandy died Oct. 13, the day
after his 29th birthday.
Police were able
to find the suspects through Sandy’s phone and
Internet records. Since Sandy was said to be targeted
for his sexual orientation, Fortunato, Fox, and Shurov
are being charged with murder as a hate crime.
According to a statement by the Brooklyn district
attorney’s office, the men could serve 25 years
to life in prison.
The men were
also charged with felony murder, which, according to TheNew York Times, requires prosecutors to prove
that Sandy’s death occurred during a robbery.
Fox’s attorney, John Patten, has requested the
charges to be lessened to larceny by trick.
New York City
Council speaker Christine Quinn said in August that the
judicial system would not tolerate criminal activity spurred
by bias or hate.
“These
criminals deliberately sought their victim by hunting users
of Web sites serving the gay community,” she
said. “That kind of prejudiced attack is an
assault on all New Yorkers, and must be answered with a
stern, uncompromising response”
However,
Fortunato’s attorney, Gerald J. DiChiara, said on the
opening day of the trial that his client is also gay.
In fact, he said, Fortunato was going to come out to
his friends that night, and meeting up with another
gay man was part of the plan.
“If he
happens to be gay, I think it’s more likely that
he’s not targeting gay people,” DiChiara
said Sept. 18, according to The New
YorkTimes.
On the second day
of the trial, presiding judge Jill Konviser-Levine
questioned the defense. “I’m still curious as
to the relevance of your client’s
sexuality,” a Times article quoting her
saying to DiChiara.
A witness for the
prosecution said on Sept. 24 that he, Fox, and
Fortunato went to a restaurant to meet Fortunato’s
girlfriend. The next day in the trial, computer
investigators revealed pornographic images of
Fortunato that he sent to Sandy.
Assistant
District Attorney Anna Sigga-Nicolazzi said that Fortunato
once told Timmins that he had robbed gay men in the
past. She mentioned an alleged robbery where he took a
man to a Comfort Inn, where the man undressed in the
bathroom while Fortunato stole his money and fled.
During
questioning, computer investigator Christopher Wachholtz
said gay and straight pornography were found on
Fortunato’s computer.
"From what I
recall there were a couple of images and numerous videos
of men and women," Wachholtz said.
Clarence Patton,
executive director of the New York City Gay and Lesbian
Anti-Violence Project, told The Advocate Friday
that his group has been following the trial closely since
the beginning. Sandy’s family found an ally in
the AVP, which sends representatives to the trial
daily. Patton said New York City residents have
been shaken by the crime.
“I think
it certainly resonated with the black gay community, and I
think also for a lot of us who happen to be black, and
gay, and a certain age,” he said.
Patton drew
similarities to the Sandy case with that of the beating of
three black men by a group of white youths in Howard Beach,
a Queens, N.Y., neighborhood. Cedric Sandiford,
Timothy Grimes, and Michael Griffith were driving
through Howard Beach when their car broke down. They
encountered a group of more than 10 white men who gathered
outside a pizza parlor where the three ate.
Sandiford and Grimes were able to escape the mob, but
Griffith was chased down the Shore Parkway, where he
was killed by an oncoming car.
“On top of
[the similarities to the Griffith tragedy], given just the
way in which they lured Michael Sandy out, [it] really
struck a chord with some because so many of us use the
Internet to meet people for different reasons,”
Patton said. (Michelle Garcia, The Advocate)
Click here to follow The Advocate on Twitter.
Page 1 of 1