The mother of Keith Phoenix has told jurors that her husband – Phoenix’s father – is of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent. Defense attorney Philip J. Smallman said that Marietta Phoenix’s testimony could help weaken the prosecution’s argument that Phoenix’s alleged murder of an Ecuadorian immigrant was a hate crime – a charge that brings an elevated sentence. Marietta’s statements were the last testimony in the three-week hate-crime trial of Phoenix and his friend Hakim Scott.
Summations are scheduled to begin on Wednesday morning. This will be our last report from the Brooklyn Supreme Court for today, but tune in Tuesday morning for the full story by Jeannette Neumann.
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