A judge has declared a mistrial in the hate-crime trial of Keith Phoenix, a Brooklyn man charged with murdering an Ecuadoran immigrant whom Phoenix thought was gay, prosecutors say, as the victim was walking arm-in-arm with his brother on the chilly night of the attack in December 2008. Phoenix, 30, was accused of beating Jose Sucuzhanay with an aluminum baseball bat so forcefully that it cracked his skull; Sucuzhanay died several days later. The mistrial ruling came after one of the jurors refused to continue deliberations, and a new trial date has been set for June 15. [NYT, NYP]
