
A Brooklyn man has been sentenced for hate crime charges in connection with a brutal 2018 attack on a Jewish man walking home from his synagogue, NBC New York reports.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Donald Leo sentenced 44-year-old James Vincent to 11 years in prison a little more than a month after a jury found Vincent guilty of strangulation as a hate crime and assault as a hate crime, among other charges.
The incident took place on April 21, 2018, when Rabbi Menachem Moskowitz was walking home in East Flatbush. Prosecutors say Vincent shouted antisemitic slurs at Moskowitz, choked him and hit him in the head. Moskowitz suffered a black eye and broken rib.
Two bystanders intervened and Vincent fled. He was arrested a few days later -- identified after buying ice cream in a nearby store with a payment card bearing his name.
Rabbi Moskowitz recalled that as he passed Vincent, he greeted him with “good afternoon," at which point Vincent began yelling antisemitic abuse at him.
“As soon as [I greeted] him he began yelling at me ‘you fake Jews, who are you saying hello to? Your fake Jews and you stole all my money and robbed me, and stole my mortgage and my house. I want to kill you!’” CrownHeights.info quoted Rabbi Moskowitz as saying.
He said he then walked away from Vincent quickly but that the assailant caught up with him, put him in a chokehold, and threatened to kill him.
“This was a frightening and unprovoked attack that left an innocent man terrorized. We will not tolerate bias-motivated crimes in Brooklyn, where we pride ourselves on the diversity of our neighbors," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a news release after Vincent was sentenced.
"I hope that this sentence sends the message that my Office will pursue and bring to justice those who target our community members with hate-fueled violence," he added.