A man from Florida's Treasure Coast says that he couldn't have murdered his ex-son-in-law, Paul Duncsak, because he was too fat at the time the murder was committed. Edward Ates, who makes his home in Fort Pierce, told jurors that there was no way he could have committed the crime.
According to a report on WPBF.com, Ates not only told jurors Wednesday that he was too fat to commit the crime but that he didn't have the energy to pull it off.
Prosecutors in the case claim that the 62-year-old Ates drove from his Florida home to New Jersey to kill his ex-son-in-law at his home in Ramsey. Nevertheless, he was arrested in 2007 by St. Lucie County sheriff's deputies in Florida.
At the time the time of the murder back in 2006, Ates was 5' 8" tall and weighed 285 pounds. He said that with this in mind, there was no way that he could have had the energy take deadly aim and make a quick getaway. His attorney also cited other health problems that he believed would have played a factor in all this. Among those thing he listed was asthma.
Duncsak was reportedly in the middle of a bitter custody battle with Ates' daughter following their 2005 divorce at the time of the shooting.
According to an Associated Press report, Ates allegedly waited in Duncsak's $1.1 million home for him to come from work. Duncsak, who was talking to his girlfriend on the phone, was shot six times. After hearing a scream followed by a thud she called 9-1-1.
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Too fat to kill? Man uses weight as a defense