Jury awards jailed illegal immigrant $750,000 lottery ticket
A jailed illegal immigrant in Georgia is the rightful owner of a $750,000 lottery ticket, a jury decided Thursday.
The Macon Telegraph has an excellent write-up on the tale of suddenly rich but soon-to-be-deported Jose Antonio “Tony” Cua-Toc, 27, a native of Guatemala who entered the country illegally in 2000.
Cua-Toc, a day laborer in the employ of Fort Valley business owner Erick Cervantes, bought the winning Jingle Jumbo Bucks lottery ticket in November 2010. Cua-Toc said he asked Cervantes to cash in the ticket because he was in the country illegally, but Cervantes kept the money.
Cervantes claims he gave Cua-Toc $20 to buy the ticket for him, but jurors watching store video of an exultant Cua-Toc decided that was not the behavior of a man who had just won a fortune for someone else.
The verdict in the civil suit would seem to set precedent — the jury determined the owner of a lottery ticket is not who pays for it, but who actually purchases it, which has me reconsidering the AJC office pool.
Cua-Toc’s winnings after taxes total $517,500. The Houston County jury also awarded him $207,000 in attorney’s fees and $25,000 in punitive damages. He is currently jailed on a DUI charge and will likely be deported after completing his sentence.
According to Georgia law, Cua-Toc could have claimed the prize as an illegal immigrant, which would have made this story a lot less interesting.
Now, I’m off to buy a $1 Mega Millions ticket. The drawing tonight is worth $148 million, and, if I win, I can assure you I won’t be asking my boss to cash it in for me.
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109 comments Add your comment
Buzz144
March 10th, 2012
8:04 am
Deduct from the proceeds the cost of arresting him, incarcerating him, prosecuting him and deporting him and then, if there is anything left, hand it to him as he crosses back into Mexico. He’ll probably be attacked and robbed by a mob in Mexico.
Justine
March 10th, 2012
8:29 am
There is no requirement lottery winners be US citizens. In fact many US citizens play foreign lotteris and many foreigners play US lotteries.
This man was working. He had a job and if he had a job he was paying taxes. It has been my experience that millions are paid by working illegal immigrants who never get a tax refund. There has been no indication he did anything but work. Secondly and most importantly, the lesson is of the greed and exploitation of those who hire illegals. It has always been said the best way to stem the illegal problem is to give jail time to those who get caught more than 2 times hiring illegals.
If you want to stop the illegal problem jail the employers. As long as you only deport or jail the illegal, the employers will simply replace them with a fresh batch of illegals. We saw that when states passed strict immigration laws and immigrants refused to come there. Now those states, including Georgia are stating they have a shortage of certain types of workers.
The most troubling of this situation is the continuing exploitation of illegal immigrants. I think the person who attempted to take the money should also be tried criminally. It was low life for him to do that and he knows he attempted to take this man’s money. And trust me, if he had given him the money when he won it, he probably would have returned to his homeland and lived happily everafter.
Mr "C"
March 10th, 2012
9:41 am
Congrats to the guy – now deduct any welfare, healthcare and or all free b’s he has gotten – also pay for his fines and jail time, buy him a tkt home give him his change and adios amigo !
Tonya w
March 10th, 2012
9:45 am
I’m glad he won his case. But forget the lottery fiasco. Here’s my issue. He is an illegal immigrant who was arressted for dui. He is receiving Clothes, food, a place to live, medical care and other things i may not know about. Seems to me “They” should have made him pay monetarily and deported him already. GA is one of the states that has the harshest immigrant laws (which I do not support) But if that is the case, why are “They” giving away all our valuable resources $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$?????????
sleestak
March 10th, 2012
10:24 am
I think 10K is all you can leave the country with.
rob
March 10th, 2012
10:44 am
Enter your comments here
rob
March 10th, 2012
10:49 am
HL Bob is right look in the emergency rooms they are not on Medicaid but guess wat,I bet all their children were born here which makes the kids American born citizens which they are eligible for Medicare
Julius
March 10th, 2012
11:02 am
I agree with all the comments here am a Hispanic living in GA for about 16 years and I get annoyed when hispanics that come here illegally or legally don’t get with the program. I paid my taxes, I have health insurance, I spend my money in the States, I learned the American culture, but am just a small percentage of hispanics that get with the program, the rest just don’t get it and that’s insane.
Antavius
March 10th, 2012
11:42 am
This should be the cue for the legislature to make it illegal for border jumpers to receive $ from the GA Lottery. The $ could be put back into the lottery pool, or donated to charity …just about anything other than allowing it to migrate to Guatemala.
John
March 10th, 2012
11:58 am
Funny…