Fat Chance! Overweight Fla. Man Convicted of Murder

Edward Ates will have plenty of chances to work off that weight in the big house

By TODD WRIGHT

Updated 7:18 PM EST, Fri, Nov 6, 2009

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A Florida man's claim that he was too fat to kill his daughter's ex-husband gives new meaning to the term, Biggest Loser.

Edward Ates said he didn't have the energy to accurately shoot his former son-in-law and escape to Louisiana.

The 62-year-old was 5'8", 285 pounds when Paul Duncsak was killed in 2006. The victim and Ates' daughter were involved in a bitter custody dispute after their divorce.

Prosecutors said Ates drove from Florida to Duncsak's home in Ramsey, New Jersey, climbed a staircase and shot the 40-year-old. Then he made his way back down stairs, hopped in a his getaway car and high tailed it back south.

Ates testified that he had no reason to want Duncsak dead and couldn't make such a drive that quick because of his weight. He just wasn't in that good of shape, his lawyers said.

"You look at Ed and you don't need to hear it from a doctor," attorney Walter Lesnevich told the jury.

But prosecutors said Ates weight may have betrayed him because police found a fast food burger wrapper next to the crime scene, which may have belonged to a hungry Ates.

The jury of eight women and four men reached the verdict on its second day of deliberations after a trial that lasted more than a
month.