By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — Prosecutors will drop first-degree murder and robbery charges against an East Harlem man who said he was paid to help a Long Island motivational speaker kill himself, they said in court Wednesday.
Kenneth Minor, 36, allegedly stabbed Jeffrey Locker to death in his SUV just near the Triboro Bridge on July 16, 2009. Minor was videotaped using Locker's ATM card at a nearby bodega shortly after.
Minor told authorities he held a knife steady while Locker "hurled himself against it" and that he was offered Locker's ATM card as payment for his assistance.
Although Minor was charged with robbing and killing Locker, evidence later surfaced that supported the argument that Locker may have disguised his own suicide.
An indebted Locker had been researching funeral arrangements and the terms of his life insurance policy in preparation for his early death.
Minor still faces a second-degree murder charge for the intentional killing, prosecutors said. He has declined to take a deal that would have him plead guilty to manslaughter.
He is scheduled to reappear in court on Sept. 15.
