Back in 2011, Scott Patronick, an openly gay man from Phillipsburg, New Jersey, was on his way out of a local bar when two men attacked him. He was punched and kicked in the head until his skull fractured, and was later pronounced dead at the hospital. His alleged killers are still incarcerated and awaiting trial after rejecting the latest plea deals from the Warren County Prosecutor in June.
Mr. Patronick was walking to his home after leaving a local Phillipsburg pub he frequented. The two men, Joshua Dalrymple, 27, and Nicholas Yerian, 24, lived within blocks of both the pub and Patronick’s home. Witnesses say, and video surveillance confirmed that theywere asked to leave the bar earlier in the evening of February 27, 2011 after an altercation. The local newspaper The Express-Times reported that $770, Patronick’s last paycheck, was missing from his wallet, along with his cellphone.
But Patronick’s partner at the time, Michael Joseph Bumbaca, said the murder wasn’t a robbery. He said it was a hate crime because Patronick was gay.
The police never pursued the fatal beating as a hate crime. Although Warren County Prosecutor Thomas Ferguson acknowledged hearing rumors that Patronick was killed because of his sexual orientation, he stated at the time there was nothing to back up that hypothesis. The two offenders were seen in the bar’s video cameras, and were arrested on first-degree murder charges.
On June 14, 2012, Joshua Dalrymple, 27, and Nicholas Yerian, 24, rejected a second set of plea deals in a New Jersey Superior Court. The offers would have downgraded the first-degree murder charges to aggravated manslaughter.
Both men are still being held in the Warren County jail on a $1 million bail.
Speaking on behalf of the Patronick’s family, attorney Francine Gargano said the plea agreement wasn’t what the family wanted. “The family thinks that the offer wasn’t enough time for them. And if it goes to trial, they hope they’ll get more time than the plea offer.”
Related story at https://outinjersey.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1137:gay-man-beaten-to-death-in-phillipsburg&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=50.
Back in 2011, Scott Patronick, an openly gay man from Phillipsburg, New Jersey, was on his way out of a local bar when two men attacked him. He was punched and kicked in the head until his skull fractured, and was later pronounced dead at the hospital. His alleged killers are still incarcerated and awaiting trial after rejecting the latest plea deals from the Warren County Prosecutor in June.
