Charges reduced in Woodmere motivational speaker stabbing

The Manhattan district attorney has agreed not to pursue first-degree murder charges in the Harlem killing of Woodmere motivational speaker Jeffrey Locker.

The decision Wednesday had been a foregone conclusion since the office of District Attorney Cyrus Vance conceded months ago that substantial evidence supported defendant Kenneth Minor's claim that Locker paid him to kill him to allow Locker's family to collect insurance.

After indicting Minor on first-degree murder on a theory that he was using Locker's ATM card, they now will seek a second-degree murder conviction, prosecutor Peter Casolaro told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman Wednesday.

Prosecutors contend that even if Locker wanted to be killed, Minor is guilty of second-degree murder. Berkman has rejected claims from defense lawyers that a so-called assisted suicide is just manslaughter, which carries a lower sentence.

Prosecutors have said Locker was debt-ridden, had just increased his life insurance, had discussed funeral arrangements and may have made goodbye videotapes for some of his children.

Locker, 52, was found strangled and stabbed to death in his car in East Harlem in July 2009. He had taken out a reported $18 million in life insurance.