Too fat to kill? Fla. man uses weight as a defense

[ccharles000]

TRENTON, N.J.— A Florida man accused of killing his son-in-law in New Jersey is arguing that he was unable to commit the crime because he was too fat. When Edward Ates took the stand in his defense Wednesday to tell jurors he wouldn't have had the energy needed to climb and descend the staircase where prosecutors say the killer was perched when he shot Paul Duncsak, a 40-year-old pharmaceutical executive, in 2006.

An attorney for Ates claims that in 2006, the 62-year-old who stood 5 feet 8 and tipped the scales at 285 pounds was in such bad physical shape that couldn't have pulled off the shooting or the fast getaway the killer made.

Ates' attorney Walter Lesnevich said his client's weight has caused Ates' asthma, sleep apnea and other obesity-related ailments.

"You look at Ed and you don't need to hear it from a doctor," Lesnevich said.

Houston defense attorney David Berg, author of "The Trial Lawyer: What It Takes To Win," an analysis of trial tactics and strategies, said that he had never heard of such a defense but that it could work.

"It's an unusual defense, but it would be a credible defense if the facts really fit in," Berg said.

"When the battered-wife defense was first used, it was considered abhorrent and bizarre," Berg said. "Jurors may be open to this in a society that talks about the infirmities that that obesity causes."

http://www.rr.com/news/topic/article/rr/1110/9338275/Too_fat_to_kill_Fla_man_uses_weight_as_a_defense