WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A homeless black man who confessed on videotape that he stabbed a woman outside a shopping mall because he wanted to kill a white person was convicted Tuesday of murder as a hate crime.
A Westchester County jury watched the video a second time during its deliberations before finding Phillip Grant guilty of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
"As long as she had blond hair and blue eyes, she had to die," Grant said on the video.
Grant, 44, admitted killing Concetta Russo-Carriero, a 56-year-old legal secretary, in the parking garage of the Galleria shopping mall, a block from the courthouse in White Plains.
He had completed a prison term for rape before his arrest in the knifing. His arrest sparked calls for a civil commitment law that could keep violent sex offenders off the streets even after their prison time is served. Civil commitment bills, including one known as Connie's Law, are pending in Albany.
Sentencing is set for Sept. 11. Grant faces a maximum of 25 years to life. The hate crime finding means the minimum sentence would be 20 years to life instead of 15.
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