'We Didn't Know He Was Dead' Defense Wins N.Y. Check-Cashing Case
Virgilio Cintron was clearly dead (and even, a New York City detective thought, somewhat stiff).
But because the state couldn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt exactly when he died, criminal charges against two buddies accused of wheeling the elderly man’s dead body to a Manhattan check-cashing outlet earlier this year in an illegal effort to cash his latest $355 Social Security payment have been dismissed, reports the New York Times.
“If the medical examiner couldn’t tell his time of death, and they are the professionals, then how could we?” one of the two pals, David Daloia, tells the newspaper. “What did we do? We didn’t do anything, except what we normally do.”
Because Cintron had Parkinson’s disease, he might have been stiff under ordinary circumstances, even when still alive.
