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| State briefs for 11/5: Arguments wrap up in ‘fat defense’ case |
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HACKENSACK (AP) — The lawyer for a Florida man who claims he’s too fat to have killed his former son-in-law told jurors Wednesday that all they have to do is look at his client to see that he’s obese, old and in no condition to have committed such a murder.
Prosecutors agreed that Edward Ates is far from fit but said he’s still capable of methodically planning and carrying out the killing of Paul Duncsak.
“He’s not running a marathon. I’ll agree he probably can’t do that,” Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Wayne Mello told the jury during closing arguments. “What he can do is execute his son.”
Prosecutors claim 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 and shot him as he returned from work. Police quickly suspected Ates and found him 24 hours later at his mother’s home in Sibley, La.
Defense lawyer Walter Lesnevich said his client — 62 years old and at least 285 pounds at the time of the murder — didn’t have the energy to run up a staircase, accurately shoot Duncsak and leave before police arrived.
Kin tells of call from scallop boat
CAPE MAY (AP) — A relative of a crew member onboard a scallop boat that sank off the New Jersey coast in March says she got a satellite phone call from him just before the boat went down, killing him and five others.
Janet Greene says her phone rang shortly before 5 a.m. on March 24. The voice on the other end sounded like Royal Smith Jr., who had two sons with her daughter, Stacy.
Greene says she heard just one muffled word — “Hey” — before the call dissolved into static and ended.
She says it was hard to tell if he was scared because the call was so brief. It came right around the time that authorities say the Lady Mary sank 60 miles southeast of Cape May.
College investigates 3 small fires at dorm
MONTCLAIR (AP) — Administrators at Montclair State University are trying to reassure parents and students about fire safety after three small fires that forced evacuation of a large residence hall.
MSU Vice President Karen Pennington posted a letter on the school’s Web site Tuesday listing fire safety measures in place at the school’s dormitories and saying that the university police are investigating aggressively.
In the latest incident, a trash can was set afire in a utility room on the sixth floor of Freeman Hall Monday.
Created: 11/4/2009 | Updated: 11/4/2009
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