Posted on 11/06/2009 1:38:06 PM PST by Steelfish
N.J. jury Convicts Fla. Man In ‘Fat Defense’ Trial Jurors reject 62-year-old’s claim he was too heavy to kill former son-in-law
Edward Ates, accused of killing his son-in-law in New Jersey, is arguing that he was unable to commit the crime because he was too fat. [Pic in URL]
HACKENSACK, N.J. - A jury rejected a Florida man's claims that he was too fat to have run up and down a flight of stairs and killed his former son-in-law, convicting him Friday of murder.
Edward Ates looked down and shook his head in court as he was found guilty of murder and weapons counts for killing Paul Duncsak, a 40-year-old pharmaceutical executive who was shot six times in August 2006.
The panel of eight women and four men issued its verdict on its second day of deliberations after a trial that lasted more than a month.
Ates, 62, had argued he didn't have the energy to accurately shoot Duncsak from a perch on the staircase at Duncsak's home in Ramsey, about 25 miles northwest of New York, and make a quick getaway to Louisiana. Ates weighed 285 pounds at the time.
Defense attorney Walter Lesnevich said they would immediately appeal the verdict.
Prosecutors claimed Ates drove from his home in Fort Pierce, Fla., to Duncsak's $1.1 million home in Ramsey, about 25 miles northwest of Manhattan, in August 2006. Once there, they said he climbed a staircase and shot him as he returned from work. At the time, the victim and Ates' daughter were involved in a bitter custody dispute after their divorce.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
And here I thought the Chewbacca Defense was the wierdest thing I’d heard. This beats it.
In this episode of Columbo, Peter Falk nabbed the suspect by putting a box of donuts at the top of the stairs and then watched as he ran up to get those donuts, proving he was capable of committing the murder.
I’m no lightweight. I outweigh this guy, and I can climb several flights of stairs, two or three steps at a time - no not two or three steps, then pause, rest, and recoup...
The article didn’t even mention that what really convicted the guy was the Internet. He had recently used Google to find information about how to silence a .22 (the killing was done with a .22); he had ordered a lock picking kit over the Internet (the victims door lock had been picked).
They also didn’t mention that he testified that he had been near the victims home, and seen by the police there, a week before the shooting.
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