Man Pleads Guilty To Hate Crime

By Pete Bowles
Originally published in Newsday, October 4, 2001

A Brooklyn man pleaded guilty yesterday to a hate-crime assault in Queens, becoming the first defendant in the county to be convicted under the state's new Hate Crimes Act.

Jeremias Amadeo, 38, of 115 New Jersey Ave. in the East New York section, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault as a hate crime in the stabbing last Oct. 11 of Said Naqawi, 31, at the Broad Channel subway station.

Supreme Court Justice Seymour Rotker told Amadeo, who has a history of violent criminal activity, that he would be sent to prison for 16 years to life when sentenced on Oct. 31.

"The defendant's guilty plea and his impending sentence sets the tone: No hate crime will

be tolerated in this county," said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

According to Brown, Amadeo approached Naqawi, of Pakistani descent, about 6 a.m. on the subway platform, yelled at him for not being able to speak Spanish, called him derogatory names based on his ethnicity and then stabbed him in the chin, forearm and behind the knee, narrowly missing an artery.

Amadeo entered the plea as a jury was about to be selected for his trial on charges of attempted murder, which carries a penalty of 25 years to life.

Under the Hate Crimes Act, which took effect three days before the attack, crimes against a person because of his or her race, color, national origin, religion, age, gender or sexual orientation carry enhanced penalties.