TRENTON, NJ (AP) -- 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.
Edward Ates, of Fort Pierce, is expected 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.
At the time of the killing, Duncsak and Ates' daughter, Stacey, were involved in a bitter custody dispute after their 2005 divorce.
Prosecutors claim Ates drove from Fort Pierce to Duncsak's $1.1 million home in Ramsey, about 25 miles northwest of Manhattan, in August 2006 and shot him as he came home from work.
Duncsak was talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone when he entered the house and was shot. After hearing a scream from him, followed by a thud, the woman called 911. Police arrived minutes later, but the killer was gone.
Police quickly suspected Ates and found him 24 hours later at his mother's home in Sibley, La.
According to Lesnevich, the trajectory of the bullets shows that Ates wasn't physically capable of the shooting.
Duncsak was shot six times as he walked down a hallway. Lesnevich said the shooter first fired from a staircase leading to the basement. That was followed by several shots fired head-on. In order to do that, Lesnevich said, Ates would have had to run up the stairs.
Lesnevich also says it would have been impossible for Ates to clean up all the shell casings and flee the house before police arrived minutes later, let alone to have driven alone 21 hours straight to his mother's house in Louisiana.
