NJ Court Rejects Challenge To State's Wiretapping Law From 'Too Fat To Kill' Murderer
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey's highest court has rejected a challenge to the state's wiretapping law.
The challenge came from Edward Ates, a Florida man who was convicted of murdering his son-in-law in New Jersey in 2005. The case received notoriety because of Ates' initial defense that he was too fat and in too poor health to have committed the murder and escaped.
Ates was convicted in 2009 but challenged the ability of New Jersey authorities to secretly record a conversation between him and his sister in Louisiana. Ates was back in Florida at the time.
An appeals court disagreed, and the state Supreme Court upheld that ruling in a decision published Tuesday.
New Jersey permits the wiretapping of phones in other states if the location where the calls are intercepted is in New Jersey.
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