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
JoeQPublic
March 9th, 2012
4:49 pm
I just hope he stays out of the country after he get the money. DWI with all that cash … lots of liquior to be bought … lots of driving down the highway in the wrong direction … let it be Mexico.
Farher A. Long
March 9th, 2012
4:50 pm
We have equal protection. Illegals should not get preference over those who went through the legal process.
smores
March 9th, 2012
4:53 pm
Wlecome to the 1%, congrats and adios amigo. God Bless.
hl
March 9th, 2012
4:54 pm
Bob, You wrote ……..The next time you are in an emergency room, take a look at the other users of services there. Medicaid sure is great when you don’t pay taxes. ……..
Illegals do not qualify for Medicaid but you are right that they must be treated in emergency rooms due to a law that Reagan signed called EMTALA.. The hospital then writes this off but makes up the difference with the rest of us. The uninsured is a problem and it’s not caused just by illegals.
nacho libre
March 9th, 2012
4:55 pm
Congrats Amigo! Welcome to the 1%
Trey
March 9th, 2012
4:55 pm
How about this. If he wants to stay in this country, he can spend that money on becoming a citizen, now.
nacho libre
March 9th, 2012
4:56 pm
Who would Jesus provide medical care for….
Big Schtick
March 9th, 2012
4:59 pm
ha ha ha. You bunch of crybaby losers.
HA HA HA. You are too dumb to do anything meaningful with your lives and you whine because somebody had the cajones to pack up and move here. You were born here. Born here. Didn’t wrestle a gator to get here or anything. Just a dumb little ginger baby, crying and pooping your pants.
But you think that makes you better than this guy.
I say let all the hard working Guatemalans in and YOU crybabies GET OUT. Go back to Scotland or Germany or wherever your ugly ginger great great grandpappy came from.
gforce
March 9th, 2012
4:59 pm
Trust me…he has no reason to stay in the US now. With this kind of money, he’ll live like a king in Guatemala.
D
March 9th, 2012
5:00 pm
bs don’t assume. they spend money on food gas and necessitites. wooh. they live in apartments with 10 others. most of their $ goes to s and central america.