5 Plead Not Guilty in Racist Killing; 4 Stay Free on Bond

NEW YORK — Five white defendants pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of murder in the racist killing of a black youth. Four were allowed to remain free on bail, prompting an angry outcry from the victim’s father.

“You should have kept them in here,” Moses Stewart, father of Yusuf Hawkins, shouted at Justice Thaddeus Owens at state court in Brooklyn. “Letting murderers walk home . . . !”

Minutes before, Owens accepted pleas of not guilty from James Patino, 24, Keith Mondello, 18, Pasquale Raucci, 19, and Joseph Serrano, 19. The alleged triggerman, Joseph Fama, 18, appeared in court later and also pleaded not guilty. He is being held without bail.

Hawkins, 16, was shot to death on Aug. 23 when he and three friends went to the predominantly white Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn to look at a used car that had been advertised for sale.

The four black youths were set upon by a group of about 30 whites carrying bats, golf clubs and at least one gun. Police said that the whites mistakenly believed that Hawkins and his companions were friends of a white neighborhood girl.

The case has raised racial tensions in the city and is believed to have been a factor in Mayor Edward I. Koch’s defeat in last week’s Democratic primary.

At Monday’s hearing, Owens rejected a request from Assistant Dist. Atty. Paul Burns to revoke the $75,000 bail of Serrano and Patino because it had been set when they were facing only assault charges. They have since been indicted for murder.

But Owens, saying he “doesn’t know anything about the case,” said he must still review the grand jury minutes.

“We’ll leave the bail as it is and see what kind of case the people have,” Owens said.

Mondello is out on $100,000 bail and Raucci is out on $75,000 bail. Burns said he was not legally able to ask for any change in their bail because the charges against them had not changed.