A jury convicted
a Brooklyn, N.Y., man of manslaughter and on
hate-crimes charges Friday for an attack on a gay victim at
a remote city beach that led to the victim's death.
John Fox was one
of two young men on trial for their roles in the assault
on Michael Sandy, who was ambushed and chased into traffic
during a mugging a year ago. A car struck Sandy as he
fled onto Brooklyn's Belt Parkway, fatally injuring
him.
The jury
acquitted Fox of a murder charge but found him guilty of
second-degree manslaughter and attempted robbery. Jurors
also found that the offense amounted to a hate crime,
a distinction that will add time to Fox's sentence.
He faces between
five and 25 years in prison on the manslaughter charge,
Brooklyn prosecutors said.
A lawyer for Fox,
John D. Patten, did not immediately return a phone call
seeking comment on the verdict.
Fox, 20, was part
of a group of young men accused of going into an
Internet chat room frequented by gay men last October in
order to find a potential robbery victim.
Prosecutors said
the men lured Sandy, 28, out to the beach by offering
him a date with Fox, who was posing as another gay man.
A second jury is
separately considering murder, manslaughter, and
hate-crimes charges against a second member of the group,
Anthony Fortunato.
Fortunato's
defense has included a claim that he is himself gay and had
never intended for the episode to turn violent. He said the
group initially planned only on conning Sandy out of
money and marijuana.
The jury in
Fortunato's case resumes deliberations Tuesday.
A third man
accused of participating in the attack, Ilye Shurov, is to
be tried separately. A fourth man, Gary Timmins, who
was 16 at the time of the killing, pleaded guilty to
attempted robbery and testified for prosecutors. (AP)
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