Amen there is a GOD there is justice finally in the Michael Sandy case. As being reported by Keith Boykin. 21-year-old Ilya Shurov pleaded guilty to charges and is facinig up to 17-1/2 years in prison after admitting that he chased Michael Sandy onto the Belt Parkway on October 8, 2006. Shurov pleaded guilty to manslaughter and attempted robbery as hate crimes. Two of Shurov's co-defendants, Anthony Fortunato and John Fox, were convicted in trial and face up to 25 years in prison when sentenced. But Shurov was looking at the possibility of life in prison because he was the only defendant accused of physical violence. Witnesses in the first trial said that Shurov had hidden behind a dune, run out, punched Sandy, chased him into traffic and then rifled his pockets after he was struck by a car.
In pretrial hearings, defense lawyers argued that no evidence showed that the defendants harbored any real animosity toward homosexuals. Prosecutors countered that the defendants had selected Mr. Sandy as a robbery target believing a gay man would offer little resistance and hesitate to report the crime.
Justice Jill Konviser-Levine, who had helped draft the state hate crime law as a senior assistant counsel to Gov. George E. Pataki, allowed the charges to stand. She rejected a defense argument that the law was unconstitutionally vague.
“The statute provides clear standards for enforcement,” she wrote, “in that it does not permit a hate crime to be charged merely because a victim happens to possess a trait protected by the statute.”
One defendant, Gary Timmins, 17, pleaded guilty to attempted robbery as a hate crime and accepted a sentence of four years in exchange for testifying against his friends. Two others, Anthony Fortunato, 21, and John Fox, 20, were accused of selecting Mr. Sandy as a robbery target. They were convicted of manslaughter and attempted robbery as hate crimes last month in a joint trial before separate juries. They are scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 20.
During that trial, Mr. Fortunato testified that he, too, was gay, calling witnesses to corroborate the details of his sex life. Lawyers for both men argued that they had merely planned to swindle Mr. Sandy, not to forcibly rob him, a required element of the felony murder charges. Justice Konviser-Levine will have broad discretion at their sentencing. Manslaughter as a hate crime carries a minimum penalty of 1 to 3 years and a maximum of 8 1/3 to 25, according to prosecutors.
Justice 4 Michael Sandy