A Brooklyn jury got an earful yesterday as Anthony Fortunato finally took the stand in the ongoing Michael Sandy murder trial.
Fortunato and two of his friends – John Fox and Ilya Shurov – stand accused of luring Sandy to a Beltway Parkway, attempting to rob him and administering a beating that led to Sandy’s death. All three men face hate crime charges.
Fortunato’s lawyer, however, contends that the 21-year old wasn’t motivated by hate, but by lust. Fortunato’s alleged homosexuality came up earlier in the trial, but got hung out during yesterday’s proceedings. When asked to describe his sexuality, Fortunato told the court, I don’t know. I could be homosexual. A homosexual. Bisexual.” He went on to say, “I was living two complete double lives.”
In addition to grilling Fortunato, defense attorney Gerald J. Di Chiara also called a number of Fortunato’s sexual partners, three of whom say they’ve had sex with the Brooklyn-native. And, what’s more, Fortunato reportedly showed up wearing bra and panties.
Fortunato and his defense team claim the Brooklyn-native wanted to get high and fool around with Sandy, but his friends wanted to play robber. Upon getting there, however, Fortunato grew uncomfortable. He told the jury, “I was scared. I didn’t want nothing to do with them so I turned and walked calmly down the beach.” It’s John Fox and Ilya Shurov who should take most of the blame, he said, particularly Shurov, who allegedly “went crazy” on Sandy.
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Fox met Sandy near Fortunato’s home, where the plan had been hatched, while the other three went ahead to the beach. Fox signaled with a cell phone call what the next step would be.
“I took this as Fox’s indication that there was enough weed for all of us to smoke,” Fortunato said. He also told the others, “Don’t do anything that we didn’t discuss and they agreed to that.”
When they saw Fox and Sandy on the beach, Shurov “went crazy,” Fortunato said.
[Gary Timmins] testified earlier that Shurov punched Sandy, who responded by running to his car, with Shurov and Fox in pursuit. Shurov then pulled Sandy from his car. The two continued chasing Sandy, Timmins said. Another prosecution witness said she saw Fox and Shurov on the highway attacking Sandy right before he was hit by a car.
The trial continues – and so will the twists, we’re sure.
Graywolf48
Homosexual, bisexual, confused. He knowingly set up the victim with his companions. He apparently did nothing to stop the attack. This guy is despicable on so many levels. If found guilty, I hope they are all sentenced to death (does NY still have the death penalty?) or put behind bars forever, with no possibility of parole.
As far as being motivated by hate, perhaps he was motivated by self hate and projected that self loathing onto Sandy. He’s a nice looking guy, he’ll be very popular in prison.
Splify
Look I know that kid alex, hes a moron, but he didnt wanna kill anyone, hes a burn out, they thought they were gonna beat some gay guy on trees and shit just went bad, life na, they deserve 4 years each, i understand the guy lost his life but his life wasnt taken by there hands, where is the driver who hit the guy? w.e doesnt matter these kids r all fu++ed
Robert
All a big closeted misunderstanding…this case has more twists than a NYC crime drama. It seems (from reading a NYC times article) that the real motivation for targeting Sandy wasn’t that he was gay…Fortunato got caught looking at gay websites by his straight friends, and he made up the ‘gay people are easier to rob’ excuse to cover his homosexuality. So, he’d rather admit to being a criminal than a homo? There’s something wrong with the warped mentality among today’s youth, where crime is seen as O.K….
This guy should do jail time (it’s going to be 5 to 15 years if found guilty) but we shouldn’t assume we know the true motivations of people…no one said that Fortunato chased Sandy, did they?