By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — An East Harlem ex-con who claimed his murder victim asked for help ending his own life was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison on Monday.
Kenneth Minor, 38, was convicted March 3 of intentionally killing Long Island father Jeffrey Locker in the summer of 2009.
Minor had claimed throughout his trial that Locker had requested his help in committing suicide. He said he held a knife steady while Locker hurled himself against it several times. Minor said he was given Locker's ATM card as compensation for his help.
Locker had been driving around Upper Manhattan seeking "a Kevorkian" according to evidence presented at trial.
The 52-year-old was found bound and stabbed in the chest at least six times in the driver's seat of his SUV about 4 a.m. on July 16, 2009. A local firefighter discovered his dead body on Paladino Avenue in East Harlem.
Prosecutors said Locker was deeply in debt and wanted to die, apparently so his family could collect on $18 million in insurance claims. But although both sides agreed that he was an active participant in orchestrating his own death, prosecutors said Minor's actions still constituted second-degree murder.
Most of the insurance claims were contested after Minor's death, although his family received $6 million from policies he had purchased years ago, prosecutors said.
Minor's attorney, Daniel Gotlin, argued an assisted suicide is not murder in New York state, insisting that Minor could only have been guilty of manslaughter.
Minor will appeal the conviction.
