Some of you might remember when Greg Raymer was the victim of an attempted robbery in front of his Bellagio hotel room.
This occurred on December 20, 2004 -- about six months after Raymer had won the Main Event.
He had just finished playing a Bellagio cash game, and was carrying $150,000 back to his hotel room. Two men followed him, pulled a gun, and ordered him to go inside his room with them. Fearing they would take the money and shoot him dead inside the room, Raymer fought back, knocked one of them down, and the two men fled empty-handed.
They were later apprehended in San Diego at a gun show, attempting to sell toy helicopters. They were identified as Deen Cassim and Kevin R. Joy, and the cops had been on the hunt for them since finding them on video surveillance following Raymer.
Both were sentenced to 3-12 years in state prison.
Kevin R. Joy was always a large guy, and ballooned to over 400 pounds. He died on August 22, 2017 in Las Vegas, at the age of 47.
According to a friend of his who I know, Joy died while having sex (!!)
The death has not been reported yet anywhere in poker media, and only appears on one obituary site right now.
A strange story also surrounded his accomplice, Deen Cassim.
In 2006, Cassim was unexpectedly released early from prison, as he offered to turn informant against a husband-and-wife bodybuilder team, who were suspected of murder. Cassim apparently had some involvement with them at the time of the murder, and wore a wire in order to get a coded confession from them.
Bodybuilders Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan were eventually convicted of the murder of assistant Melissa James, who was also having an affair with Titus. This conviction was a result of guilty pleas, which were done partially due to Cassim's cooperation in wearing the wire. Titus will be in prison for awhile. Ryan will be released next month.
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