2 Get Maximum Terms in N.Y. Racial Murder

Two teen-age whites convicted in the slaying of a black Brooklyn youth that fueled racial tensions here were given the maximum possible sentences Monday.

Joseph Fama, 19, the reputed triggerman in the murder of 16-year-old Yusuf Hawkins by a white mob in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, received a sentence of 32 2/3 years to life in prison for his conviction on second-degree murder and other charges.

Keith Mondello, also 19, the alleged ringleader of the mob, was sentenced to a maximum of 5 1/3 to 16 years in prison for his conviction on riot, unlawful imprisonment, discrimination and other charges.

Prosecutors had argued for the stiffest possible sentences before state Supreme Court Justice Thaddeus Owens, contending that a strong signal needed to be sent that such racially motivated crimes would not be tolerated.

Fama and Mondello, who were convicted last month by separate juries that each deliberated for more than a week, were the first of eight defendants to be tried in the Hawkins case.

As Fama’s sentence was pronounced in the packed courtroom, family and friends of Hawkins broke out in cheers and applause. On the other side of the aisle, a member of Fama’s family shouted obscenities at them and attempted to accost them but was restrained by court guards.

Fama’s mother, Josephine, making a rare appearance in the courtroom where her son was tried and convicted, was escorted out after the sentencing, crying and muttering in Italian.

Moses Stewart and Diane Hawkins, parents of the youth slain last Aug. 23 as he and three companions visited Bensonhurst to see about buying a used car, talked with reporters outside the courthouse after the sentencing.

“It’s a small joy for myself, but a great victory for black people across the state, like the people out here,” Stewart said, indicating the crowds of supporters in the public square in front of the courthouse.

Diane Hawkins added: “It won’t bring my son back, but I’m glad that Joey Fama is going to serve his time in jail. The pain will never leave me.”

Mondello, who was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges but was found guilty of several lesser charges, was the first to be sentenced.

“Mr. Mondello really was the catalyst that started all this,” Justice Owens said as he sentenced Mondello, who stood impassively before the judge. “Without Mr. Mondello, there would not have been a death of anyone.”

Mondello’s defense was based on his contention that he had been forced to protect himself after a former girlfriend, Gina Feliciano, told him she was inviting more than two dozen blacks and Latinos to celebrate her 18th birthday at her mother’s apartment in Bensonhurst on the night Hawkins was slain.

Feliciano allegedly told Mondello that her black and Latino friends were going to beat him up. When Hawkins and his companions came into the neighborhood that night in response to an advertisement for a used car, they were mistaken for Feliciano’s friends and attacked by a mob of 30 to 40 whites carrying baseball bats and at least one gun.

Hawkins was shot. His three companions escaped without serious injuries. Two of them, Troy Banner and Claude Stanford, sat with members of Hawkins’ family during the sentencing Monday.

Stephen Murphy, Mondello’s attorney, appealed to the judge to make the sentences run concurrently instead of consecutively, which could have resulted in a sentence of 1 1/3 to 5 years.

“To run these sentences consecutively would be tantamount to overturning the jury verdict,” Murphy argued.

He said also that Mondello had no prior record of offenses and was not a racist.

But Owens was not swayed by Murphy’s contentions.

Mondello was convicted of one count of rioting, three counts of unlawful imprisonment, three counts of menacing, four counts of racial discrimination and one count of criminal possession of a weapon--a baseball bat.

His earlier acquittal on the murder and manslaughter charges sparked pandemonium in the courtroom and a wave of protests by stone-throwing, bottle-hurling crowds of blacks in Brooklyn that prompted Mayor David N. Dinkins to go on television and appeal for calm.