Man who stabbed Jeffrey Locker to death to plead guilty
An undated file photo of Kenneth Minor, whose murder conviction in the 2009 death of Long Island motivational speaker Jeffrey Locker was reversed due to incorrect jury instructions on the defense of assisting suicide. Credit: Steven Hirsch
The Harlem man who helped indebted Woodmere motivational speaker Jeffrey Locker kill himself to collect on life insurance in 2009 has tentatively agreed to plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter and receive a 12 year prison sentence, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Kenneth Minor was convicted of second-degree murder in 2011 and sentenced to 20 years to life, but the conviction was overturned in 2013 because of incorrect jury instructions on the defense of assisted suicide.
Manhattan State Supreme Court Justice Laura Ward is still considering a motion to bar a retrial on murder charges, said defense lawyer Dan Gotlin, but if she denies it as expected, Minor will enter his plea next Monday.
Locker, who was married with three children, was found stabbed to death in his car in East Harlem on July 16, 2009. He had $18 million in life insurance. Minor told police after his arrest that Locker hired him to hold a knife while Locker plunged onto it. Assisted suicide in New York is second-degree manslaughter.
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