A resident of Florida who blamed his girlfriend’s choking death on his large penis has recently been found not guilty of second-degree murder.
65-year-old Richard Patterson endured a seven-day-long trial before being acquitted in the 2015 choking death of his 60-year-old girlfriend Francisca Marquinez.
Patterson’s trial made the news due to his insistence that he show his penis in court to prove it was indeed responsible for Marquinez’s choking.
However, according to The Sun-Sentinel, a medical examiner deemed fatal choking by oral sex highly unlikely.
The examiner indicated a few warning signs that come with the choking of orally ingested objects.
“If she cannot breathe, she usually starts to kick or to do something to prevent this blocking of the airway, try to open this airway,” said Broward County Medical Examiner Iouri Boiko. “It’s normal reaction of any person.”
Patterson’s defence subsequently went back to the drawing board and decided instead to argue that there’s no way to know how Marquinez died because her body was too decomposed when examiners got to it.
At the end of the day, The Sun reports, the jury deliberated for five hours before deeming Patterson not guilty.