Jurors convict Marine vet who claimed he was too fat to kill his former son-in-law

“Ten or 15 years ago, a case like this could never have been considered — pure circumstantial evidence,” Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

But his investigators deftly uncovered online tracks that Ates tried to destroy, including visits to a Web site called “How to Commit the Perfect murder.” They also pulled mileage records on his car. Senior Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Wayne Mello then assembled an airtight case.

The type of gun used to kill the victim

Ates, 64, drove to Paul Duncsak’s $1.1 million home, shot his former son-in-law, then fled to Louisiana, prosecutors said.

Duncsak, who was involved in a bitter custody dispute with Ates’ daughter over their two children, was on the phone with his fiance when he walked into his house the night of Aug. 23, 2006. She said he screamed and then she heard a thud before the line went dead.

Ates, who was 285 pounds at the time, claimed he was too fat to make it up the stairs and aim accurately without his hands shaking.

But that wasn’t the way it played out, Mello told jurors, who reached their verdict in their second day of deliberations.

Ates served in the military for 16 years after enlisting as a 17-year-old, and later retired after 30 years in government work as the civilian equivalent of a general.  The day of the murder, he picked the lock to get into the victim’s house, waited for him to come home from work, and then shot him several times with a .22-caliber handgun, Mello said.

“The detectives involved did a great job in gathering this evidence and working the street in gaining sufficient other evidence which allowed this knowledgeable and diligent jury the ability to agree with us and find him guilty,” Molinelli told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

Besides the “perfect murder” site, Ates researched .22-caliber guns, silencers and lock-picking online. He apparently missed sites that explained how to successfully delete such information.

“Our detectives and Ramsey police did a great job, and, once again, [Mello] has distinguished himself as one of our nation’s top trial attorneys,” the prosecutor said.

Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 17. Ates could get life.

 

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