20-to-life in motivational speaker's slay

A Harlem man blurted out a one-word expletive as he was sentenced Monday to 20 years to life in prison for killing Long Island motivational speaker Jeffrey Locker, a crime the defense argued amounted to assisted suicide.

A sobbing Kenneth Minor, 38, who was convicted earlier this year of second-degree murder in the stabbing of Locker in Manhattan in July 2009, had earlier begged Acting Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Carol Berkman to give him the minimum 15-years-to-life term so he could hope for enjoying his old age once released from prison.

"I am not an animal; I have no malice in my heart," Minor told the court Monday.

But after Berkman announced the 20-year minimum sentence, Minor responded by shouting a four-letter profanity. He could have received as much as 25 years to life. Defense attorney Dan Gotlin said he would file an appeal based on Berkman's instructions to the jury, which he believed forced a conviction.

Gotlin told reporters that the case was the first murder conviction in the state for a person who helped another commit suicide.

Prosecutors said Locker, 52, of Woodmere, was facing a financial crisis at the time of his death. Gotlin said Locker had maxed out his credit cards and, after taking out $18 million in life insurance, made various arrangements to plan for his funeral and shield his assets from creditors. The defense said Locker then went to Harlem and asked Minor, a stranger who was basically destitute, to kill him for a fee. Trial evidence showed that Minor held the knife that stabbed Locker.

Minor insisted that had he been white, prosecutors would have offered him a plea bargain to a manslaughter charge but pushed for a murder conviction because of the high-profile nature of the case.

"This was always about money and race," Minor said.

Gotlin said $6 million in insurance has been paid to Locker's family but that $12 million more is being challenged by insurers because, they say, Locker committed suicide within two years of getting the policies. Principal Life Insurance Co. has sued Locker's old company to cancel its $4-million policy, saying Locker lied when he claimed to make $800,000 a year in his motivational coaching.

Locker's family didn't return a telephone call for comment. Minor's family was in court but did not comment.

"This was murder for money, not a mercy killing, which is why we prosecuted the case," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said last month.