Defendant found not guilty

Man acquitted of murder after initial oral-sex defense

Richard Henry Patterson, the Margate man who initially claimed his girlfriend choked to death during oral sex, was found not guilty Monday of second-degree murder.

The verdict was announced just under five hours after the jury began its deliberations.

65, faced a maximum of life in prison if convicted of the murder of Francisca Marquinez, 60, whose decomposing body was found in her condo unit Oct. 28, 2015, after Patterson reached out for help from a defense lawyer, Ken Padowitz, without calling police.

Padowitz and Patterson embraced after the verdict was read, as family members of the victim sat in unconcealed frustration. “This is not justice,” one family member called out. Marquinez’s son, Omar Andrade, declined to comment as he left the courtroom.

The defense claim that Marquinez choked to death while performing oral sex on Patterson was the focus of Padowitz’s approach through most of the weeklong trial, but late Friday the lawyer switched his emphasis to the possibility that Marquinez died of a heart attack or stroke that went unnoticed by the defendant.

Medical experts were not certain how long Marquinez was dead. She was last seen by someone other than Patterson on Oct. 25, according to trial testimony, and by the time investigators arrived her face, neck and arms had been so badly discolPatterson,