Suspect: Victim Paid Me to Kill Him

Is murder still murder when the victim hires his own killer? A New York City jury may soon face that question and set a precedent on assisted suicide judgments, when a bizarre murder trial starts today. Defendant Kenneth Minor—arrested after motivation speaker Jeff Locker was found stabbed to death—says Locker paid him to carry out the killing and make it look like murder—and evidence suggests he may be telling the truth, ABC News reports.

Locker—who, according to Minor, was driving around Manhattan looking for someone to "do a Kevorkian"—was deeply in debt and had taken out a $4 million life insurance policy on himself months before his death. Prosecutors have rejected a manslaughter plea. Minor's lawyer plans to argue that his client only had a passive role in Locker's death. "We're going to present defense experts that say Locker lunged, by himself, onto the knife," the lawyer says."That's the whole case: active or passive. All or nothing." (More Jeff Locker stories.)