Ex-Con Claims "Assisted Suicide" in Stabbing Death

Jeffrey Locker

An ex-con charged with brutally murdering and robbing a Long Island life coach is using a fictitious sounding "assisted suicide" defense—the strangest part is he may be telling the truth. "This man came to Harlem looking for a person to take him out. This man was asking everyone in Harlem to kill him," the defendant's sister told the Daily News last year. Now, as the court finds more and more evidence to support the unlikely story, charges against Kenneth Minor may be downgraded.

From the beginning Minor said that Jeffrey Locker—found dead in his car last summer with seven stab wounds in his chest—wanted to die so that his family could collect on a life insurance policy. Police dismissed the dubious-sounding claim that he gave Minor his ATM pin in payment for the assisted suicide, but now prosecutors are taking a second look. "Certain information has been discovered that tends to lend some support to that claim," they said in court documents. For one thing Locker was deep in debt and had recently purchased a life insurance policy, reported the NY Post. For another, they'd seen "recent computer searches concerning funeral arrangements."

When Minor's lawyer asked that the charges against his client be downgraded to second-degree manslaughter and assisted suicide the judge responded "It's a new one [for] me." It's still unclear whether the prosecution will agree to drop first degree murder charges against Mr. Minor.