Baseball Bat Suspect in Hate Attack: "I'm Not Anti-Gay!"

The hits keep coming for Keith Phoenix. First, the 28-year-old Bronx ex-con was caught laughing on a traffic camera only minutes after he confessed to beating an Ecuadoran immigrant to a pulp with a baseball bat and yelling anti-gay slurs. Then he claimed self-defense. Now, in a jailhouse interview at Rikers Island, the murder suspect blames the victim and says he is not "anti-gay."

The Daily News interview is a fascinating exercise in denial and fiction.

Phoenix says Sucuzhanay and his brother Romel stepped in front of his SUV on that fateful Dec. 8 morning - and when he blew his horn, Jose kicked the vehicle and the brothers let out a stream of curses. He said he got out to confront them.

"I saw the handle of a gun," Phoenix said matter-of-factly. "He was reaching for a gun."

So he grabbed a bat from the SUV and struck Jose four times, he said, and hit him twice more when he thought he was reaching for the gun again.

He denied police accounts that he callously blurted, "So I killed someone - that makes me a bad guy?" when nabbed.

Phoenix, whose lawyer also claimed his client was acting in self-defense, said he was stung by allegations he targeted the brothers because he thought they were gay. "I'm not a hateful person," he said. "I have nothing against gay people." He also said he is part Hispanic.

Jose Sucuzhany was not gay. On December 7, the Ecuadoran immigrant was walking arm-in-arm with his brother to keep warm when Hakim Scott and Keith Phoenix jumped from an SUV. Reportedly more than a dozen witnesses say the thugs shouted anti-Hispanic and anti-gay slurs while beating them with broken beer bottles and a baseball bat. Witnesses and police insist the victims had no weapons of any kind.

So the gay-bashing, baseball bat-wielding ex-con wants us to believe everyone is lying but him. All of these witnesses—plus the police and the victim's surviving brother—are mistaken in what they saw and heard? And he jumped from the safety of his SUV because a pedestrian was "reaching for a gun" that was never recovered and no one saw? Yeah. You keep telling yourself—and the jury—that.

Bat Slay Suspect: I'm Not Anti-Gay [NYDN]

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Comments

[ACH]

"All of these witnesses—plus the police and the victim's surviving brother—are mistaken in what they heard? And he jumped from the safety of his SUV because a pedestrian was "reaching for a gun" that was never recovered and no one saw?

It could happen.... not!

[Antonio]

this man is truly disgusting.

all criminals will lie and say they didn't do it but this one is intent upon trashing the victims and pretending there is some vast gay/ecuadorean conspiracy out to get him.

i am so sick of these cowardly gay bashers who want to hurt, rob and murder but refuse to speak up and own up to their actions.

[Freddy]

Maybe where he comes from they don't call it homophobic or antigay. Maybe that is just how the brothas are in the neighborhood.

[Tre]

Rod...why do you refer to these men as "thugs"? It is emabrassing enough that the men who allegedly did this are black but calling them "thugs" reinforces stereotypes don't you think?

They're thugs. It's a difficult to talk about stereotypes when the defendant has admitted to beating an unarmed man to death with a baseball bat. And witnesses heard him yelling homophobic slurs. I won't try to sugar coat this because they are black men who killed a Latino. -RM

[Kevin]

tre, OMG, they killed a man with a baseball bat as they were shouting anti-gay slurs at them, they are attempting to justify it and you're concerned about reinforcing stereotypes?

These are THUGS, period.

[Shane Moseley]

@ TRE:

These are gay bashers and violent felons. They killed a man. But what word makes you feel more comfortable, dear?

[GRANT]

These so called men are THUGS plain and simple. There is no way to get around it. There being black is immaterial....if they were white we would call them thugs too.

I think we should step away from the race of these defendants and not try to excuse them. If this had happened to a black gay man we would be all over it (the white gay blogs probably would not tho) So it is the same hatred we are fighting.

[Derrick from Philly]

Tre:

are you in your early twenties? I mean, you seem to associate the word "thug" with Hip Hop or Gansta' Rap. The term "thug" goes back many many decades, and of course there was a time when most thugs were thought of as white (when black folks were at the least crime committing ethnic/racial group--before the 1960s).

And these creatures in the Bronx are worse than thugs, they are also sadistic beasts. Had their victims been black (especially transgender) their cruel behavior would have been the same--maybe more savage.