Former Delta workers found not guilty in $250K money bag heist at JFK Airport
A federal jury in Brooklyn needed less than an hour Monday to acquit two former Delta Air Lines employees accused of stealing a bag full of $250,000 cash from a plane at JFK Airport.
Quincy Thorpe and Emmanuel Asuquo Okon walked out of the federal courtroom beaming as they thanked the jurors passing by them in the hallway Monday. The duo were charged with conspiracy to steal cargo and cargo theft, and each faced the possibility of 10 years behind bars.
But their lawyers pointed out to the jury that none of the video footage from Sept. 24, 2019, the day of the theft, shows either man stealing the heavy bag of cash.
“My life has been for four years at a standstill. I just would like to pick up the pieces and move forward,” Thorpe told reporters outside the courtroom. “I’ve been stuck in the system for four years.”
One of the jurors told the two men, “It was the right thing,” as she passed them in the hallway outside the courtroom. “Have a good night!”
Thorpe was working as an aircraft loading agent for Delta the day of the theft, and was loading and tasked with eight big bags of cash onto a plane bound for Miami. When the plane landed, though, one of the bags was missing — and Thorpe’s scanner showed he only checked seven bags, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also pointed to a manila envelope and documents from the Loomis armored car company found in Okon’s car, which they say came from the money shipment.
But the jury wasn’t convinced, and Okon’s lawyer, Douglas Rankin, surmised that the video “worked against” the prosecutors’ case.
“It just didn’t show what they claimed,” he said. “I asked the jury to trust their minds and not to be told or narrated to what was on those videos. None of those videos showed any criminal act committed. None. Period.”
Thorpe’s lawyer, Lonnie Hart Jr., said, “It was a theory. A theory by the government, and the jury rejected it.”
Prosecutors argued that video showed Thorpe leaving the plane in a “tug” vehicle with a trailer attached, then meeting up with another man in a Delta van. who gave him a ride to a parking lot to meet with Okon.
Okon used to work for Delta, and the two were longtime friends.
At trial, the men’s lawyers said Delta and Loomis were embarrassed about the missing cash, and needed someone to blame.
“He’s an easy scapegoat for someone else’s incompetence,” Hart said of Thorpe. “The evidence will show that they arrested him without concrete proof, and that they spent the next four years trying to manufacture evidence to make him look guilty.”
A spokesman for Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace declined comment Monday.
Thorpe was non-committal when asked if he’d try to get his job back. He worked for the airline for 22 years, and was on disability leave when he was arrested, he said. His lawyer said they were going to explore “legal opportunities” in regards to his employment.
When asked if he had any idea where the money wound up, Thorpe joked, “We will go look for it now.”
