I'm-gay-too defense flops in hate-crime death trial

NEW YORK - A man who tried to fend off gay-bashing charges by telling a jury that he, too, is gay, was convicted yesterday of manslaughter as a hate crime for his role in a fatal attack at a remote city beach.

Jurors deliberated several days before convicting Anthony Fortunato in the death of Michael Sandy, a gay man who was beaten and then chased into the path of a moving car on Brooklyn's Belt Parkway on Oct. 8, 2006.

The jury acquitted Fortunato of murder, which could have put him behind bars for life. At his sentencing, he will face a jail term of between five and 25 years.

Prosecutors said Fortunato had been part of a group of four young men who hatched a hate-inspired robbery scheme after they ran out of drugs and money on a weekend night.

The group needed an easy victim, and Fortunato suggested they look for one in an Internet chat room frequented by gay men looking for sex partners.

They logged on and found Sandy, lured him out to Brooklyn's Plum Beach with a promise of a date, and then attacked him.

Sandy was trying to escape when he was struck and fatally injured by a car on the Belt Parkway, the same road where a black man, Michael Griffith, was chased to his death by a mob of white youths during the infamous Howard Beach attack in 1986.

During the trial, Fortunato took the witness stand and admitted a role in the crime, but said hate had nothing to do with it.

The 21-year-old said he was also gay, or at least bisexual, and had been having sexual thoughts about men since he was a teenager. Jurors also heard testimony from three men who had one-night stands with Fortunato.

Fortunato acknowledged that it had been his idea to find a gay man to scam out of drugs or money, but insisted he had never meant for anyone to get hurt. The plan, he told the jury, was to get Sandy to share some marijuana voluntarily, or, if need be, take money from him and run off.

The scheme went awry, he said, when others members of the group attacked Sandy without warning.

Fortunato claimed that he crept away when things got violent - an escape he said he would "always regret" once he learned how the assault had ended.

Fortunato's attorney, Gerald J. DiChiara, did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment yesterday afternoon.

A second man, John Fox, was convicted last week of manslaughter and hate-crime charges by a separate jury.

Another attacker, Gary Timmins, pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and testified for prosecutors. A fourth suspect, Ilye Shurov, is awaiting trial.

Prosecutors argued that they didn't have to prove that Sandy's attackers hated gay men, only that they picked their victim because of his sexual orientation. *