In July of 2009, a Long Island motivational speaker Jeffrey Locker was found dead in his car, parked in Harlem, with his "hands tied behind his back and a cord wrapped around his neck and tied to the headrest," with stab wounds in the chest. But when police arrested Kenneth Minor (he was taking money out of Locker's account) and charged him with Locker's murder, Minor claimed that Locker wanted his help to die. However, a jury didn't buy that claim and found Minor guilty of murder in the second-degree.
According to the NY Times, "Evidence showed that Mr. Locker had taken out life insurance policies worth nearly $18 million in the months before his death, had told witnesses that he wanted to die, and had gone as far as researching funeral homes on the Internet. [Locker was also $750,000 in debt.] During the trial, which lasted nearly three weeks, Mr. Minor’s lawyer said his client had later used Mr. Locker’s A.T.M. card to withdraw money as payment for the killing, which he said was part of an agreement." Locker had even written good-bye letters to his family. "
However, prosecutors argued that it was still a murder for hire—the prosecutor said, "Is the defendant an angel of mercy? No. He's the Grim Reaper." The judge, Justice Carol Berkman, told jurors if they believed Minor "actively caused Jeffrey Locker’s death, even with Locker’s consent, then that is not assisted suicide... The consent of the victim...is not a defense to murder."
Minor's lawyer Daniel Gotlin, who criticized Berkman's instructions, said his client "knew that he had done something he shouldn’t have" and is very "upset" and vowed to appeal. Two alternate jurors told the Daily News they would have convicted Minor of murder, with one saying, "These two men are victims of the system and their own greed and choices."
