After 4 days of deliberations, a hung jury forced Judge Patricia Di Mango to declare a mistrial in the deadly hate crime case against Keith Phoenix. Phoenix is charged with the baseball bat-beating death of Ecuadoran immigrant José Sucuzhañay, a Bushwick resident.

The prosecution alleges that the 2008 attack was a hate crime after witnesses testified that before the assault, Phoenix yelled anti-gay and -Latino slurs at Sucuzhañay and his brother Romel. José, who suffered skull fractures and was declared brain dead, died a few days later. Phoenix faced a mandatory life sentence if convicted of the more severe charge of second-degree murder as a hate crime.

His accomplice in the attack, Hakim Scott, was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter but not guilty on the second-degree murder as a hate crime charge that the victim’s family was seeking. Scott is facing 40 years in prison when he is sentenced next month.

Scott’s acquittal on the hate crime charge outraged many in the community. Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez told Spanish-language news station Univision on Tuesday that she would use her office to get U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to look into the case.

The victim’s family is disappointed in the outcome of both trials. Through a translator, Romel Sucuzhañay told the AP he was worried about the outcome — "the evidence was there," he said. A third brother not involved in the attack, Diego Sucuzhañay, told Univision on Tuesday that dismissing the hate crime charges against Scott and Phoenix would "send the wrong message to the community."

Phoenix’s mother, Marietta, said she’s happy with the mistrial. "My son is not an animal as everyone is making him out to be," she told the AP. "I think justice was served at least a little bit."

The Sucuzhañay family has been working since the attack with Bushwick-based advocacy organization Make the Road NY to keep the crime in the public eye.

After the mistrial, standing at the site of the attack on the corner now named for his brother, Romel told Univision, "It’s time to unite as Latinos in the search for justice."