South End gay-bashing suspect pleads guilty

Fabio Brandao, the 29-year-old Framingham pizza delivery man charged with taking part in a brutal gay-bashing in the South End last August, pleaded guilty to nine criminal charges, including four civil rights violations, on May 27 in Boston Municipal Court.

Brandao originally pleaded not guilty to all charges after his arrest in August, but changed his plea the day his trial was set to begin.

Brandao and three other men, who remain at large, attacked a group of three men and one woman, all in their mid-20s, who were walking home from the Roxy nightclub along Columbus Avenue in the early morning hours of August 24. Brandao and his friends allegedly beat two of the men in the group so severely that they sustained concussions and have no memory of the assault. Throughout the attack the assailants allegedly called the victims "fucking faggots." The attackers then fled the scene in a white Honda station wagon; one of the victims called 911 and reported the license number of the vehicle, which was registered to Brandao. Police also found Brandao's cell phone at the scene.

After Brandao's guilty plea, Judge Thomas Horgan handed down a two-year jail term that he suspended for two years. During that two-year period Brandao will be subject to a set of conditions recommended by Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley's office. He must pay the four victims $4250 in medical bills and other expenses by Nov. 25; he must stay away from the victims and stay out of the South End; and he must complete an anger management program and undergo a court clinic evaluation for anger management.

"Should Mr. Brandao violate any of the terms or conditions set forth today, Mr. Brandao will be incarcerated," Horgan said from the bench, according to a press release from Conley's office. "That incarceration period will exceed the Commonwealth's recommendation."

Conley's office had recommended a jail term of one year with six months to serve and the balance suspended for a probationary term of 18 months.

Jonathan, one of the victims, who asked that his last name be withheld to protect his privacy, traveled up to Boston from D.C., where he now lives, to view the proceedings. He and the other victims preferred that Brandao face a stiffer penalty for the assault, he said, but they are grateful that he is being held responsible for his crime.

"I think we all would have liked to see a harsher sentence, but within the circumstances and the rules it was the justice that could be served under the circumstances," said Jonathan, who sustained a mild concussion and cuts and bruises to his head after being punched and kicked in the head by the assailants.

While the three remaining suspects are still at large, Jonathan said Brandao's guilty plea has provided him with some sense of closure, even if he feels the punishment was too lenient. He hopes the terms of the sentence will dissuade Brandao from committing similar assaults in the future.

"I don't want anyone else to ever have to go through it. It's something you wouldn't expect in this city and something you wouldn't want anyone to go through," said Jonathan.