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Too Fat to Kill Defense Doesn’t Hold Up
7-Nov-2009 Written by: Matt Bultman
A Florida man was convicted of killing his son-in-law after jurors don’t buy too fat defense
A Florida’s man defense that he was too fat to kill didn’t convince a New Jersey jury, who found him guilty of murder.
65-year-old Edward Ates was convicted Friday of killing his son-in-law back in 2006.
The defense argued that Ates’ weight would have prevented him from climbing the stairs to where the shotting of 40 year-old Paul Duncsak occurred. They also claimed that it would have been impossible for Ates to clean up the shells and flee the home in time, let alone drive 21 straight hours to his mother's home in Lousiana where police found him.
Ates claims that at the time of the murder he was 285 pounds, significantly more than what he weighs now. He also claimed to be suffering from asthma, sleep apnea and other weight related ailments. He told jurors that he had lost 60 pounds while in jail, awaiting the verdict of his trial.
Prosecuter’s argued that at the time of the murder Dunsak and Ates’ daughter were involved in a bitter divorce and that Ates was upset because Dunsak had refused to give him $250,000 to keep his struggling golf course alive.
The jury reached a verdict on the second day of deliberation. Ates’ bail was revoked and he will be sentenced on December 17th.
