October 2, 2007
Michael Sandy Murder Defendant Using Maybe-Gay Defense
Very cagey: Fortunato is using the “I couldn’t have killed him because I’m gay too” defense.
Whether he’s gay, or bi, or just a MSM, we know this much: A lot of observers are going to say: “See? All gay bashers are secretly gay!” 
Murder Defendant Speaks of Hidden Double Life
By the time Anthony Fortunato took the witness stand yesterday, facing charges of murder as a hate crime in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, his whole life was at stake. The rest of it could be spent in prison. To save himself, he offered his last, deepest secrets.
Through two weeks of trial, jurors heard from the police, from forensic scientists and from his own friends. They had sifted through his electronic mail. They had even heard from Mr. Fortunato’s lawyer, Gerald J. Di Chiara, who during opening arguments on Sept. 17 said that his client would not have made a gay man a target because he himself was gay.
Yesterday, dressed in a dark blazer and khaki slacks, Mr. Fortunato took the stand in his own defense. When Mr. Di Chiara asked him his sexual orientation, he responded, “I don’t know.” Asked what he meant, he said: “I could be homosexual. A homosexual. Bisexual.” …
. . .
Mr. Fortunato testified that since age 13, he had hidden homosexual impulses and eventually encounters from his friends. …
. . .
“I’m a gay man,” said the witness, Michael Roberto, who had been ordered to testify by subpoena. Under questioning from Mr. Di Chiara, he recounted meeting Mr. Fortunato online, then inviting him to his apartment for sex. Mr. Fortunato arrived, he said, wearing panties and a bra. Two more witnesses gave similar accounts. …
. . .
By this point, it seemed clear that Mr. Fortunato had a history of arranging gay encounters online, but so far the only testimony about his plan for Mr. Sandy that night had come from the prosecution’s cooperating witness. Then Mr. Fortunato himself took the stand. …
Filed under: Hate Crimes, New York
