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
Turd Ferguson
March 9th, 2012
7:52 pm
To,KT You Need To Let It Go.
sandy
March 9th, 2012
8:04 pm
effing beaner needs to be sent back with what he came here with.. NOTHING
Garry Owen
March 9th, 2012
8:13 pm
He should be made to pay for the expenses incured while in State custody!
4 jacks
March 9th, 2012
8:44 pm
Give the money back to honest tax paying legal citizens of OUR country and run these illegal drunk driving pos aliens back to there own sorry a$$ countries. What the hell are the people on these jury’s thinking, or maybe that is the problem they do not think. God this is what is wrong with America, it is NOT America anymore.
PR
March 9th, 2012
8:48 pm
Illegals should not be allowed to claim the money…THEY ARE CRIMINALS! ship them all home.
DEPORT IMMEDIATELY
March 9th, 2012
8:59 pm
Deport the SOB immediately and have him pay all the bills of the deportation! He is not worthy to breath one more minute of our air…..put this sorry POS of the next bus out of here.
Laurie
March 9th, 2012
9:20 pm
most sweepstakes require winners to be US residents. We should have a simular law for the lottery.
Jose
March 9th, 2012
9:20 pm
good god, what’s wrong with some of you. Can’t you all just admit you want Jim Crow be placed back on the books instead of this veiled “patriotism”
Snatchandgrab
March 9th, 2012
9:32 pm
Well, at least the state of Ga and the Fed gov will get taxes out of the money…A whopping 40%
A real American
March 9th, 2012
9:49 pm
This should have been a no brainer. No, an illegal should not have the right to bring a case to trial, no he should not get the money and YES, he should be deported. When are we going to get serious about this issue?