The "Harlem Kervokian" trial jurors returned their verdict Thursday, after deliberating for half a day. They agreed that hired-knife Kenneth Minor (pictured) is guilty of murdering motivational speaker Jeffrey Locker (pictured below) and that he does not get a break under the state's "assisted suicide" exemption, even though the victim wanted to be killed.
Locker was so drowning in credit-card debt and afraid for his family's future that he actually made the decision two years ago to cruise the streets of New York's famed Harlem to find someone who could help kill him.
He tried to solicit a Kervorkian-type individual, someone who could assist with the staging of his own death so that his family could collect some $17 million from his insurance policies. In July 2009, Locker was found dead in car, stabbed in his chest with his hands tied behind his back.
Minor, who has a record of mostly drug arrests, admitted to assisting Locker with his death and remains adamant about not taking the entire blame for the murder. The 36-year-old maintains that he braced the knife against Locker's steering wheel and the victim impaled himself in to the sharp weapon seven times.
Before he died, Locker allegedly gave Minor his ATM card and pin number as payment for the staged and twisted plot.
Since prosecutor Peter Casolaro was able to paint Minor as a "grim reaper" rather than "an angel of mercy," Minor now faces up to 25 years for his role in the murder.
According to defense lawyer Daniel Gotlin, in New York State, "No one has ever, ever been convicted of murder in an assisted-suicide case," he told the New York Post after court, vowing to appeal.
Minor now faces sentencing on April 4th.
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