The bloodthirsty thug accused of doling out the final death blows on an Ecuadorian immigrant he thought was gay walked away after beating him senseless on a Brooklyn street, but returned to finish the job when he saw his victim trying to get up, prosecutors said today.

Keith Phoenix beat José Sucuzhanay “over and over again with the bat held high above his head,” because he thought he was gay, prosecutor Joshua Hanshaft said in court today.

“Jose tried to get up… and (Phoenix) came back with the bat and beat him two to three times on the head, cracking his skull wide open.”

The dramatic recounting of events came during opening arguments in the trial of Phoenix, 29, and his buddy Hakim Scott, 26, who are accused of murder as a hate crime, manslaughter and assault in the beating death last year of Sucuzhanay.

The victim was walking and huddling with his brother along a Bushwick street to shield himself from the cold when thugs mistook them for a gay couple, prosecutors said.

Hanshaft said Scott “took a glass bottle and smashed it with all his might” over Sucuzhanay’s head, knocking him down.

While Phoenix took over the attack with the bat, Scott chased Sucuzhanay’s brother, Romel, with the broken bottle , preventing him from helping Sucuzhanay, a 31-year-old father of two.

The incident happened around 3:30 a.m. when the victim and his brother were stumbling home drunk from a party.

Romel was holding his brother “arm in arm,” Hanshaft said. “It appeared they were walking like a married couple.”

The perps saw the brothers from their truck at a red light and shouted anti-Hispanic and anti-gay slurs. An angry Sucuzhanay kicked their truck,” Hanshaft said, and the occupants stepped out and beat him to death.

The perps were later seen partying at a nearby bar, and Phoenix could be seen laughing as he drove over the Triborough Bridge back to his home in the Bronx “laughing and smiling as if nothing happened.”

Cops later arrested Phoenix, who was hiding at a friend’s house in Yonkers.

“So what? I killed someone,” Phoenix said, according to cops. “Does that make me a bad person?”

Lawyers for Phoenix and Scott said jurors should be wary of calling it a hate crime.

“This was never about hate,” said Scott’s lawyer Craig Newman. “This was never about prejudice. Scott never intended to seriously harm anybody.”