Pod Insights True Crime All The Time Richard Merritt Part 2 About this episode Richard Merritt was a well-known, successful attorney in Smyrna, Georgia, until he was caught stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from his clients. Richard pleaded guilty to the financial crimes and was given two weeks to get his affairs in order before he had to report to prison. Richard was willing to kill to avoid going to jail.
Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss Richard Merritt in this part 2 and final episode. His mother, Shirley, supported him throughout his legal troubles and was planning to drive him to prison on the day he was supposed to turn himself in. But Richard decided to murder his mother and take off in her vehicle. In part two of the Richard Merritt episodes, we’ll cover how he was finally arrested and all the evidence prosecutors presented at his murder trial.
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1:47 Speaker 00 Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 435 of the True Crime All the Time Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson, and with me as always is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. Gibby, how are you?
1:58 Speaker 01 Hey, I'm good. How about you?
1:59 Speaker 00 I'm doing great.
2:00 Speaker 01 Awesome.
2:00 Speaker 00 Talked about it on Patreon, but this weekend is my 29th wedding anniversary.
2:08 Speaker 01 You know.
2:09 Speaker 00 Getting old.
2:10 Speaker 01 Yeah.
2:11 Speaker 00 Been married for well over half my life, but my wife and I are going to Chicago to, for the weekend to celebrate.
2:18 Speaker 01 Chi-Town.
2:19 Speaker 00 Yep, or Chi-Town, as most people call it.
2:22 Speaker 01 Well, unless you're from there or no, been there a lot, then you say Chi-Town.
2:26 Speaker 00 I could have sworn you said She-Town.
2:30 Speaker 00 But let's go ahead and give our Patreon shout outs. We had one bad day away.
2:35 Speaker 01 Hey, thanks, O B D A.
2:37 Speaker 00 Uh, Karen S.
2:38 Speaker 01 What's going on, Karen?
2:40 Speaker 00 With love, Nick jumped out at our highest level.
2:42 Speaker 01 Hey, thank you, Nick.
2:43 Speaker 00 Catherine Gorham jumped out at our highest level.
2:46 Speaker 01 Catherine, you're the best.
2:47 Speaker 00 Chris Demuth.
2:48 Speaker 01 Hey, Demuth.
2:49 Speaker 00 Lisa Marie.
2:50 Speaker 01 Ah, thank you, Lisa.
2:52 Speaker 00 Misty Edwards.
2:53 Speaker 01 There's Misty.
2:54 Speaker 00 Carla Tate.
2:55 Speaker 01 What up, Tate?
2:56 Speaker 00 Samantha Mayhew.
2:57 Speaker 01 Hey, Samantha.
2:57 Speaker 00 And last but not least, Dana Marie.
3:00 Speaker 01 Hey, thank you, Dana.
3:01 Speaker 00 Yeah, thanks to everyone. Then if we go back into the vault, this week we selected Lisa Shackler.
3:08 Speaker 01 Yes, Shackler, I tell you what.
3:10 Speaker 00 So we appreciate the new support, the continued support. We have a brand new episode out right now on True Crime All the Time Unsolved, where we're talking about Danielle Bell, who was only 14 years old when she went missing in 2001. I, I think, you know, what a lot of people focus about in Danielle's case is the fact that she was involved in a relationship with a 24 year old man who, to this day, kind of remains a person of interest.
3:43 Speaker 01 Yeah, it's gonna make some people angry.
3:45 Speaker 00 Oh, yeah, that's a big age difference, especially when, uh, the girl is 14 years old.
3:52 Speaker 01 Yeah.
3:53 Speaker 00 Gibbs, we haven't talked about in a while, but Crime Con is coming up pretty quickly. It's, you know, two or four months away. So we should throw it out there, right? If anyone is going, hasn't bought their tickets yet, make sure you use our promo code TCAT at crimecon.com. You'll save 10% off your standard badges.
4:13 Speaker 01 Yeah, get out there, hang out with those at Mile High.
4:17 Speaker 00 Yeah, at Mile High.
4:19 Speaker 01 Just be a mile high with us, you know, just be high with us.
4:23 Speaker 00 How high are you going to be, is the question?
4:26 Speaker 01 So you can be high and you can be high elevation, too.
4:29 Speaker 00 Both, yeah. All right, buddy. Are you ready to get into this episode of True Crime All The Time?
4:35 Speaker 01 I am.
4:35 Speaker 00 We're on to part two and the final part of our Richard Merritt episodes. In part one, you know, we talked about his childhood, family dynamics, his career as an attorney, and how he was caught stealing from his clients, and then how he fled shortly before his mother was found dead in her home.
4:59 Speaker 01 Son of the year.
5:00 Speaker 00 Yeah, just a despicable act, one of many, but obviously the killing of your own mother is at the the top of the list. You know, he did manage to remove his GPS monitoring ankle thing. I'm sure he got some of that from your ebook.
5:24 Speaker 01 Amazon.com. Look it up. Gibby.
5:27 Speaker 00 Do you have to add the dot com? I think most people know what Amazon is.
5:32 Speaker 01 Just in case they didn't.
5:33 Speaker 00 Just in case. So in part two, we're going to cover how he was finally arrested and all the evidence prosecutors presented at his truck. On September 27, 2019, the US Marshals received a tip from the police in Nashville, Tennessee. The university police at Vanderbilt called them because a concerned citizen reported a suspicious individual pulling on car door handles.
6:03 Speaker 01 Just wondering how suspicious that has to be. I mean, is that, you know, pulling on one or two? Is that going to flag you? Or if it's pulling on like 30?
6:11 Speaker 00 You're just going down the line on the street and pulling on every one of them? Yeah, pretty suspicious. Also, we have the US Marshals involved again. Goes back to last episode when you attempted to kind of do the Tommy Lee Jones speech from US Marshals. We have a couple of voicemails and I had a lot of communications about how, just how wrong you were.
6:39 Speaker 01 Or how right I was.
6:40 Speaker 00 Well, we'll find out.
6:43 Speaker 00 So the police ran the tags of the cars that had potentially been broken into, and they found out that one of them was Shirley Merritt's stolen vehicle, which meant there was a chance Richard was in the city. And I would say there's a pretty good chance. Police found receipts from local restaurants and stores inside the car, and the US Marshals set up surveillance at Richard's most frequented spots.
7:11 Speaker 01 Pretty smart there.
7:13 Speaker 00 On the part of law enforcement?
7:14 Speaker 01 Absolutely.
7:15 Speaker 00 Yeah, I mean, you know, what's not smart, I guess, is to keep all these receipts and things. What do you, you know, he's not going to be writing them off, right?
7:26 Speaker 01 Does he even know what a write-off is?
7:28 Speaker 00 Do you?
7:29 Speaker 01 No.
7:30 Speaker 00 Nobody does.
7:31 Speaker 01 No.
7:31 Speaker 00 But, you know, why does he need these receipts? He's not getting reimbursed from his employer.
7:38 Speaker 01 Yeah.
7:38 Speaker 00 So you're just leaving around potential evidence. Now, I'm sure he never thought that they were going to catch up to him, you know, you know, in near Nashville or in Tennessee.
7:52 Speaker 01 That certainly helps them.
7:53 Speaker 00 Yeah, it definitely gives them some places to, you know, kind of stake out or think that he's probably going to return to. The police also learned Richard was staying in an apartment with a woman. On September 30th, 2019, the US Marshals arrested Richard at a thrift store in Nashville. Officers approached Richard and asked him to get on the ground and identify himself. He responded, "You know who I am."
8:23 Speaker 01 You know who I am, damn it.
8:25 Speaker 00 This is Al Cowling, "You know who I am, damn it." But this sounds like, to me, how you would ultimately be captured. Number one, leaving a thrift store.
8:38 Speaker 01 Absolutely.
8:39 Speaker 00 Because you are very
8:40 Speaker 01 Thrifty?
8:40 Speaker 00 Thrifty, frugal, cheap, however, you know, you want to put it.
8:45 Speaker 01 You just left it at thrifty.
8:46 Speaker 00 I could have, but I chose not to. And then, you know, once you're, you're on the ground and they ask you to identify yourself, I can see you saying, "You know who I am."
8:58 Speaker 01 Yeah.
8:59 Speaker 00 I'm Gibby.
8:59 Speaker 01 I'm Gibby, come on.
9:01 Speaker 00 The store manager told 11 a lot. There was a little bit of a commotion. A man ran in through the back racks, which is past our office. Next thing we know, I see they had on the flak jacket. I kind of see a handle of a gun. We see a huddle go down. I'm thinking, oh no, this guy has a gun. They're fighting for it. It was done really quickly and quietly, less than three minutes. It was pretty nuts. We get odd characters, but nothing like that.
9:31 Speaker 01 Well, law enforcement, especially the US Marshals, they're not messing around.
9:37 Speaker 00 Well, the one thing I will say is they were very coordinated. It sounds like, and they had a plan. They executed that plan very quickly, very decisively. Richard had a Louisiana driver's license with a fake name. He also had a job, but sources didn't say where he worked. Richard was in a romantic relationship with the woman he was staying with. They met on a dating app and she knew him as Mick Malvo. She had no idea he was wanted for murder.
10:11 Speaker 01 Look at him trying to use a Louisiana last name.
10:14 Speaker 00 And you just wonder how far in advance he had set some of this stuff up. Or was he able to obtain it while he was on the run? But, you know, it seems like fairly quickly. He's on the dating app. He meets somebody. He moves in with this person.
10:34 Speaker 01 You know, he's one of those guys that is smart.
10:37 Speaker 00 Yeah.
10:37 Speaker 01 But also dumb.
10:39 Speaker 00 Yeah. And I think there are a lot of people like that. There are especially a lot of criminals like that. You know, you can be intelligent, but also do the dumbest thing.
10:52 Speaker 01 Sure.
10:53 Speaker 00 And we see it time and time again. Thankfully, it's what leads a lot of these people to get caught. I often think, Gibbs, that, you know, some of these criminals, even though they are intelligent, many of them, they think they're smarter than what they, they, they really are.
11:12 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's for sure.
11:13 Speaker 00 And it leads to their downfall. Richard was extradited to Georgia to face charges of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony. He pleaded not guilty. Opening statements in Richard's murder trial started on May 18th, 2023. So, I mean, it was like three and a half years after he was arrested. Now, he had COVID in there.
11:45 Speaker 01 We did.
11:45 Speaker 00 Which I'm sure played a big role in why his trial was delayed as much as it was. Prosecutor Helen Pop told the jury how Richard violated his client's trust and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from them. Shirley was cooking Richard one last meal on February 1st, 2019, before she drove him to prison. Richard did not want to turn himself in, but Shirley was insistent that he do the right thing, which caused a heated argument that ended with Richard beating his mother to death and stabbing her with a kitchen knife.
12:27 Speaker 00 The prosecutor noted, per Fox 5, "The force was so strong. The knife lodged in her skull. The handle broke off."
12:36 Speaker 01 How angry did he have to be at his mom?
12:38 Speaker 00 I mean, it's pretty evident that he did not want to turn himself in.
12:44 Speaker 01 Why not just say, Mom, I'm not gonna do it.
12:46 Speaker 00 Leaving.
12:47 Speaker 01 I'm leaving. Do what you gotta do, but I'm gone. You know, help, help me out one more time. Just don't call anybody until tomorrow.
12:55 Speaker 00 Yeah, I, I think you make a great point. I get it. She wanted him to do the right thing. But there had to be another way, Gibbs, for him to just slip out of the house. And he could still take her car without beating her and stabbing her and killing her. Richard then stole his mother's phone and vehicle, removed his ankle bracelet and fled to Nashville, where he lived under a fake identity. And again, you know, I go back to this thought. He had to have been planning at least some of this.
13:32 Speaker 01 Yeah.
13:33 Speaker 00 You know, I gotta get a fake identity. Where am I gonna go? Well, what about Nashville? And at some point, he's gotta get on this dating app. He's gotta meet somebody. He needs a place to stay.
13:46 Speaker 01 Just trying to figure out why he chose Nashville, not that far away. I mean, if you're on the run for now murder, I think you'd want to put a little bit more distance between you and where the murder took place.
13:59 Speaker 00 Yeah, I could see that, but would it matter? It seems to me, especially the fact that the US Marshals are involved. Their jurisdiction is not limited.
14:13 Speaker 01 That's true.
14:13 Speaker 00 So if there's any type of tip or whatever, they're gonna be there in a heartbeat. Richard's defense attorney, Heidi Wolf Gruber, told the jury that Shirley's death was a tragedy. However, Richard had no history of violence. And the prosecution's case was what she called a mishmash of times and texts and coordinates meant to distract the jury from one key point. That Richard's DNA and fingerprints were not found at the scene. You know, and we talked about that in episode one. But we also know there are a number of ways not to leave fingerprints, to limit the chance that you're gonna leave DNA.
14:59 Speaker 01 Yeah. So why did he flee the scene? Why did he take the phone and car if he had nothing to do with it?
15:05 Speaker 00 Yeah.
15:06 Speaker 01 Why not hang out and wait for the police to get there and say, I don't know what the hell happened?
15:10 Speaker 00 But he's also an attorney.
15:12 Speaker 01 Yeah.
15:12 Speaker 00 Right? Probably a little more knowledgeable about certain things as related to the law than most of us. Richard's cousin, Michael Jeffco, testified about how Shirley reacted to the fraud charges against her son. He said, as quoted by Law and Crime, "It broke her heart. She loved both of her sons and to see Richard throw away his whole life by stealing from clients just broke her heart, knowing that he was going to prison." And I thought about this, Gibbs, quite a bit after we recorded the first episode. I just couldn't get it out of my mind.
15:53 Speaker 00 This thought of, you know, here's a guy who's making a very good living.
15:59 Speaker 01 Yeah.
16:00 Speaker 00 Doing what he set out to do, what he spent a long time in, in school for. He's got, you know, a wife, he's got a family and you're going to jeopardize all of that to steal settlement money from your clients. I, I just cannot, could not, and still cannot wrap my mind around that.
16:25 Speaker 01 And that's, and this is where I say, this is why he's dumb because you have to know that will eventually come to an end, right? Reputation wise, eventually it's going to get out.
16:36 Speaker 00 Yeah, I, I was shocked because you would think someone as intelligent as he seemed to be would know that this is going to be very hard to get away with.
16:48 Speaker 01 Right.
16:49 Speaker 00 But I don't know, maybe it didn't enter his mind. The greed took over and, you know, he went for it. Richard's ex-wife, Janine Minikozzi, testified that Richard failed to pay their mortgage for six months and they eventually lost their home.
17:06 Speaker 01 Mortgage? Why pay that? Doesn't make any sense. You and the kid, you guys will be fine. I mean, clearly his priorities are all jacked up.
17:15 Speaker 00 Yeah, you know, again, I think this is a guy who cared about no one but himself. And I think he was using everyone around him. You know, there are just some people like that. They're users and they'll use you for what they can get out of you. And then, once they're not able to get that out of you, they just discard you.
17:39 Speaker 01 Yeah, move on to the next target.
17:41 Speaker 00 At the time of his arrest in January 2018, they had no power because he hadn't paid the bill. She also testified that he pawned the van they used to transport their daughter in her wheelchair. I mean, everything Gibbs that comes out about this guy just makes him more and more despicable.
18:02 Speaker 01 Well, look, he's a very self-centered individual.
18:04 Speaker 00 Oh, absolutely. So you have a daughter in a wheelchair. You pawn the van, special van, right? Used for her transportation. And then at some point, you're going to leave all of them without a home. Janine confirmed that Shirley was the one who bailed Richard out and put up her house as collateral. Janine testified about her relationship with Shirley. Shirley was a devoted grandmother and Janine considered her part of their immediate family because she was so close with the children. She attended all their events and they spent a lot of time together.
18:42 Speaker 00 And, you know, I would say that the same thing about, you know, my parents, my wife's parents. I think of them more as immediate family.
18:54 Speaker 01 Yeah.
18:55 Speaker 00 Than a mother-in-law or a father-in-law, or, you know, even my, my mom and dad, my stepmom, my stepdad. After the divorce, Janine stayed in contact with Shirley, but not as often as before. She still brought the kids over to see their grandmother. Janine was polite, but their relationship was strained because Shirley didn't want her to divorce Richard. Janine said Shirley was adamant about this and they had some terse contentious conversations about it.
19:26 Speaker 01 Well, I'm sure in her eyes, her son could do no wrong.
19:30 Speaker 00 Yeah, it does sound that way. I think, you know, she's super proud of her kids. And, you know, what mother wants to believe that their child is, is the one at fault is doing things they shouldn't be doing. It's tough for a lot of mothers, I think.
19:50 Speaker 01 Yeah, sure. You don't want to admit that.
19:52 Speaker 00 But you gotta give it up for Janine, right? After the divorce, you know, making sure that Shirley got to see her grandchildren. I think that's a, a very important thing.
20:04 Speaker 01 Yeah, she put her kids in front of herself in her past relationship.
20:09 Speaker 00 Yeah, pretty much the exact opposite of, of what her ex-husband, Richard.
20:14 Speaker 01 Yeah, exactly.
20:15 Speaker 00 Janine also testified that she maintained contact with Richard after the divorce because she allowed him to see their daughter on Sundays. She described the relationship between Shirley and Richard as contentious. Shirley did a lot for them when they were newlyweds. She helped them buy a house. She even helped them pay some of their bills. She also gave Richard money to start his law firm and paid for his defense attorney after he was arrested.
20:45 Speaker 01 Definitely a mama's boy.
20:47 Speaker 00 You mean, right up until the time he killed her?
20:50 Speaker 01 Yeah.
20:51 Speaker 00 I mean, let's face it, she did about everything she could do for him.
20:56 Speaker 01 Sure she did.
20:57 Speaker 00 She bent over backwards to help him and, and even Janine. But despite all of this, Richard wasn't always kind to his mother. They argued often about everything. Richard was frustrated because he felt his mother was too involved in his life. Okay, I, I understand that, you know, some mothers can be like that. Some fathers can be like that. But often, you know, it's out of love. They, they just want to be involved.
21:28 Speaker 01 Sometimes that's just the price you pay to be in that relationship with that parent. You know, if you don't want to take that advice, if you don't like their involvement, you can say something. You can choose to distance yourself from that, but most people don't want to do that.
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24:15 Speaker 00 Janine testified that she knew Richard borrowed money from Shirley that he was supposed to pay back, but the understanding was he was never going to do it. And that doesn't surprise me at all. That sounds like Richard Merritt.
24:30 Speaker 01 He's a user.
24:31 Speaker 00 Hey, uh, let me borrow some money. I promise you I'll pay it back. But in his mind, the whole time, he's thinking, you know what?
24:38 Speaker 01 Yeah.
24:38 Speaker 00 I've got no designs on paying this back.
24:41 Speaker 01 Never paying her back. Are you kidding me?
24:44 Speaker 00 After learning that Richard committed financial crimes, Shirley was devastated. Janine testified that it ruined her life.
24:53 Speaker 01 Sounds like it did.
24:54 Speaker 00 Well, from a number of different standpoints, I would think, right? We talked about how proud Shirley was of both of her boys. I'm sure she told her friends, you know, hey, Richard's got his own law firm. He's doing great. And then that's a big blow to find out that, you know, he committed all these crimes, especially against many of them, the elderly.
25:21 Speaker 01 Yeah.
25:22 Speaker 00 Your friends are gonna find that out.
25:24 Speaker 01 Can't really brag about how good your kid is if he's a fraudster.
25:29 Speaker 00 No, and people are gonna look at you differently. Jeanne confirmed that she was still in contact with Richard after he was sentenced in January 2019, and she made arrangements for him to see their kids before he went to prison. She saw him the night before the murder. They met in a parking lot so he could say goodbye to the kids. Janine testified that Richard was physically violent with her once during their marriage. She said, we were in an argument, we were in the bedroom. He pushed me to the ground and I hit my head on the bed. He had a bad temper. And there was one incident where she and her son felt like they had to hide from him. He typically became angry when he drank too much, which occurred often.
26:14 Speaker 01 Well, as we all know, when people drink, some of those people can get pretty ugly.
26:21 Speaker 00 Yeah, I mean, alcohol does different things to different people, right? Some people get happy, chummy, clingy.
26:30 Speaker 01 Yeah.
26:31 Speaker 00 Some people get mean. It it it just depends.
26:35 Speaker 01 It sounds like he was a mean drunk.
26:37 Speaker 00 Yeah, no, it it does sound like that. Janine testified when he was drunk, he would go into a rage, yelling, scaring the children. She told the jury that around the time Richard knew he was going to be arrested, he started driving home while intoxicated. There were times that he was so drunk, he was unable to get out of his car. On the nights he was able to get inside, he was angry and screamed at his family.
27:05 Speaker 01 Those are the nights that you probably look out in your driveway and go, I hope he can't get out of the car.
27:12 Speaker 00 But but think about that, so drunk you can't get out of the car.
27:16 Speaker 01 Yeah.
27:16 Speaker 00 But yet somehow was able to make it home and pull into the driveway. That's a scary thought.
27:23 Speaker 01 It really is.
27:24 Speaker 00 Janine was asked why she didn't call the police and said it was because she didn't want people to know.
27:31 Speaker 01 Yeah, she's got some pride, right? She doesn't want people to know what her husband was doing and and probably worried that it was going to cause more problems for her.
27:40 Speaker 00 Well, I'm sure there's a lot of people who don't want everyone else to know their business, right? Especially if it's not flattering. Next, the jury heard testimony from Kelly Richardson, who dated Richard in Nashville. Kelly testified that she met Richard online in July 2019. He introduced himself as Mick Malvo from Louisiana. He claimed he worked in marketing. So this is like five months after the murder. He told Kelly that his father died of heart complications and his mother died of leukemia. He said his ex-wife had a miscarriage and he had no surviving children.
28:21 Speaker 01 We had a full story, didn't he?
28:23 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah, crafted over, you know, however many months. Maybe some of it was crafted before this all went down. I don't know. Kelly described Mick as interesting, intelligent and fun to be around. He claimed he was living in Nashville with a cousin, but made it sound like he was sleeping on a couch. So he was uncomfortable taking her there. She never met this alleged cousin or any other family.
28:49 Speaker 01 That's a shocker.
28:51 Speaker 00 That he wouldn't want her to meet anyone. Yeah. She and Richard were on different schedules because he worked nights. So she gave him the key to her place so he wouldn't wake her up. During cross-examination, Kelly was asked if Richard was ever aggressive. She said he was agitated and frantic at times, but never physically aggressive. When asked to elaborate, she said, I think it was the weekend before he was arrested. And when I told him he needed to find a place to live. At first, I told him to go back to his cousins and he said that he couldn't go back. I told him I needed more space and he became upset and was pacing, not making eye contact and would hold his head in his hands.
29:36 Speaker 00 And said he had no place to go and made excuses why he wasn't leaving.
29:42 Speaker 01 Well, once you should have said, go back to your cousins.
29:44 Speaker 00 Yes.
29:45 Speaker 01 So just be clear on that.
29:46 Speaker 00 But multiple cousins.
29:49 Speaker 01 Yeah.
29:50 Speaker 00 But here again, you have to ask yourself, Gibbs, you know, did Richard actually like this person? Did he want a relationship with this person? Or was he using Kelly for a place to live?
30:06 Speaker 01 It sounds like to me he was using her as some cover.
30:09 Speaker 00 Their relationship ended when he was arrested. But afterwards, he tried to call her and send her postcards. And that doesn't surprise me, even if he really wasn't, you know, in love with her or that into her, you could see a guy like Richard Merritt want to kind of stay in contact because maybe there's something this person can do for him.
30:36 Speaker 01 Absolutely. It's why he's doing it, right?
30:38 Speaker 00 I, I have a feeling.
30:40 Speaker 01 I need somebody on the outside. You're my person.
30:44 Speaker 00 So here's a postcard, just in case I need something in the future.
30:48 Speaker 01 Is that exactly right?
30:50 Speaker 00 Associate Medical Examiner Dr. Bruce Weiner testified that Shirley's cause of death was a combination of blunt impact injury and stab wounds and that the injuries to the right side of her head were consistent with being hit by a dumbbell. And we said it in the first episode, right? 35 pound dumbbell.
31:10 Speaker 01 Yeah.
31:11 Speaker 00 That can do some serious damage.
31:13 Speaker 01 It sure can.
31:15 Speaker 00 Crime lab scientist Jesse Worley testified that she examined the knife handle and did not find any prints. And what does that tell you? Not that she didn't find his prints, she didn't find any prints.
31:28 Speaker 01 It means it was wiped clean or gloves were used.
31:32 Speaker 00 Yes, had to be, right? Something along those lines because obviously somebody had to touch that knife at some point. DNA analyst Alexandra Jason testified that the hairs found on the dumbbell belonged to both Shirley and Richard. DNA was found on the dumbbell, but not enough to make a complete profile. Richard then got on the stand to testify in his own defense. And we don't, you know, we don't see that a lot for very good reason.
32:03 Speaker 01 Maybe because he's an attorney or was an attorney. He thought, I can do this.
32:08 Speaker 00 Yeah, that might've had something to do with it. But to me, I, I think if you're part of the jury and you find out that Richard is going to testify, there's got to be some anticipation, I would think, in hearing what this man has to say.
32:25 Speaker 01 Well, and as the prosecutor, I'm sure you just can't wait to get your turn.
32:30 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah. Usually the prosecution is kind of licking their chops, right? When a defendant decides to take the stand. But again, you have a seasoned attorney, but with a little bit less control. Right? You're the one on the stand. You're not the one asking the questions. So in my way of thinking, it's still very dangerous to take that avenue. Richard spoke about a strange cartoon delivered to his mother's home and to Janine's home on January 14th, 2019. A cartoon was also delivered to his attorney, David Willingham.
33:15 Speaker 00 Fox 5 reported that one cartoon depicted a courtroom scene with word bubbles suggesting the judge and prosecutors in the fraud case were going too easy on Richard. Another cartoon depicted the Disney characters Huey, Dewey, and Louie in a robot. Shirley found the cartoon in her mailbox and she called Richard. She sounded upset. Richard testified that right after he got off the phone with his mother, Janine called him and was upset because she also received a cartoon. He was concerned because the exact same cartoon was delivered to both Shirley and Janine's homes, which were about 40 miles apart.
33:58 Speaker 00 This led him to believe someone was watching his family.
34:02 Speaker 01 Maybe it was a very upset ex-client that you took all their money.
34:08 Speaker 00 Or a family member of an ex-client.
34:10 Speaker 01 Yeah, and they were trying to send a message.
34:13 Speaker 00 Now, you could also make the argument that, well, maybe Richard sent both of these cartoons as a way to make people think he was in danger or that there was somebody out there wanting to get him.
34:30 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's true. Could have.
34:33 Speaker 00 Shirley was still upset. When he returned home from work, she started feeling dizzy and having chest pain. Okay, I can understand that if you feel as though there's somebody out there that maybe wants to do you or someone in your family harm, that could be very upsetting to people.
34:53 Speaker 01 Kind of visualizing the, uh, remember that old, uh, Red Fox show he was in? He'd grab his chest and reach up to, to the sky.
35:03 Speaker 00 And what would he say?
35:04 Speaker 01 Is the big one or something like that to whatever his, uh,
35:07 Speaker 00 Elizabeth, I'm coming to join you, honey. Yeah, I used to watch that show all the time.
35:12 Speaker 01 Sanford and Son or something, right?
35:13 Speaker 00 Yep, that was it. Richard then told a shocking story. He claimed that on February 1st, 2019, two armed men entered Shirley's home and murdered her. He testified that he was in the kitchen, keeping Shirley company. While she cooked for him, he heard a loud knock at the front door. They weren't expecting anyone at that time. He opened the door and there were two men on the other side, pointing guns at him. They ordered him to let them in, and he did. Shirley came to the front to see what was going on, and the men ordered them to go to the basement. The fact that they knew they had a basement led Richard
35:54 Speaker 00 to believe they had cased the house. Shirley was in distress and made noises like she was going to scream. One of the men told her to shut up and pushed her down the stairs. She fell headfirst into a wall. She tried to stand up, but couldn't get her balance. Richard testified that one of the men held a gun to his head or back the entire time they were in the home. So he couldn't do anything to help her. The man who pushed Shirley picked up a dumbbell. Richard said, "This monster took this dumbbell and proceeded to bludgeon my mother right in front of me. She stopped moving at this point. I then told the man
36:37 Speaker 00 who had his pistol in my back to bring me down to the bottom of the stairs." shoved me over to the tile where the dumbbell rested and then the older guy took off up the stairs. He came back a few minutes later with the kitchen knife and proceeded to stab my mother repeatedly in front of me. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I didn't understand what would be the purpose because she wasn't moving. Why is any of this happening? It was a complete and utter nightmare.
37:10 Speaker 01 It also sounds like a lot of BS.
37:13 Speaker 00 Yeah, to me, it sounds like a person, in this case, an attorney, who's had a lot of time, Gibbs, when you think about it. This trial doesn't happen for, you know, four years after the murder. To think about what type of narrative they should craft to explain what happened in Shirley's home that night.
37:39 Speaker 01 And why did these men assault her, kill her, but for what?
37:44 Speaker 00 And I think that's what makes it so implausible, right? If somebody had an issue with anyone, who is it most likely to be?
37:54 Speaker 01 It'd be him.
37:55 Speaker 00 Yeah, Richard.
37:56 Speaker 01 And why is he still alive? Who leaves a witness behind?
38:00 Speaker 00 Afterwards, the men took out a phone and showed Richard pictures of Janine, dropping off their daughter at school, a photo of Janine's home, a photo of her at the mall, and a photo of her work. They warned him, if you say a single word, they're next. And Gibbs, this goes back to what you said. Why would they want to leave a witness behind? And Richard, yeah, I get it. He's saying that they warned him not to say a single word. But they just killed Shirley. What would stop them from killing Richard? And my thought is, when you look at the two of them,
38:42 Speaker 00 which one of them is most likely for someone to want them dead? I can't imagine it's Shirley. How many enemies could she have possibly had?
38:55 Speaker 01 Yeah, no doubt. I mean, the person with the enemies is Richard.
38:59 Speaker 00 Yeah. And again, that's why the, the whole scenario just doesn't seem to make sense.
39:06 Speaker 01 But wouldn't you want to know, why'd you just kill my mom? And why are you telling me that you've been watching my family? I mean, if they're watching his family, his wife, his daughter? It sounds like they were targeting him if his story is even true, right?
39:21 Speaker 00 Right, which we know it's not.
39:26 Speaker 00 Richard didn't call the police. He decided to flee and took his mother's car because it had more gas in the tank. So, you know, again, like we talk about in a lot of episodes, you know, when you're crafting a narrative to explain why you did what you did, you have to cover so many different facets.
39:49 Speaker 01 Yeah.
39:50 Speaker 00 Right? Why did you steal your mom's car? Well, I didn't steal it. I just knew it had more gas in it than mine and I needed to get away. It's not like I thought the police would be looking for my car, my vehicle. And so I took my, my mom's.
40:08 Speaker 01 Right, yeah, not gonna say that.
40:10 Speaker 00 Even after he was arrested, Richard didn't tell the police what allegedly happened. He shared this story for the first time at trial. Again, so if you're on that plausibility meter, this guy has been arrested for murdering his mother, but doesn't tell the police that, oh, no, it wasn't me. Two guys broke in and killed her. He's going to reveal this at trial.
40:40 Speaker 01 Yeah, well, he had time to think about all this.
40:43 Speaker 00 But if you're the jury, you know, what do you think?
40:46 Speaker 01 I think it's a hard sell.
40:48 Speaker 00 I think it's a very hard sell, especially when you find all of this stuff out, right? That he didn't mention a word of this and hadn't for like four years, since the time he was arrested. And again, you know, if I'm a juror, I'm asking myself, who wants to kill Shirley? And why would they leave Richard alive as a witness? I'm asking those two questions for sure.
41:16 Speaker 01 Yeah, because it's a pretty big risk leaving him alive.
41:19 Speaker 00 Yeah, I mean, you can threaten him or you could just kill him. You've already killed one person in the home.
41:27 Speaker 01 And the other thing I was thinking, if you're in the home and you both have guns, why go through all the effort of picking up a weight and smashing someone's head in and then going upstairs and bringing a knife down? Why wouldn't you just execute him right there?
41:41 Speaker 00 Shoot the person. Yeah. Again, it it just fails on so many levels. Richard insisted that he loved his mother and did not kill her emphasizing that she was one of the few people who supported him after his conviction. And I think that last part is true, right? She did support him even after, you know, his first conviction on the financial charges. But to me, that just shows you how cold Richard Merritt really is.
42:18 Speaker 01 Yeah, I think she loved him unconditionally, but he loved her conditionally.
42:22 Speaker 00 Yeah, I think everything and everybody for him was conditional. What can I get from this person? What can they do for me? During cross examination, prosecutors asked why he fabricated the story and questioned why he never called the police. He was asked, is it fair to say when you're in trouble, you lie to get out of it? Richard responded by saying, I don't believe that's fair to say at all. On May 24, 2023, Richard Merritt was found guilty on all counts, malice murder, two counts of felony murder, two counts of
43:03 Speaker 00 aggravated assault, and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony. He was sentenced to life without parole plus five years.
43:12 Speaker 01 Always loved the plus five years.
43:14 Speaker 00 Yeah, life, no parole is not enough. Here's an additional five years.
43:21 Speaker 00 Even after you die, we got you.
43:24 Speaker 01 That's right.
43:24 Speaker 00 We got you for five years. Richard's cousin, Mike Jeffcoat, gave a victim impact statement. As quoted by Fox 5, he said, "Richard couldn't stand the idea of somebody with an ego as big as his being sent to prison. The court has convicted him of murdering his mother, cutting off his ankle bracelet, running to Nashville, getting on a website and dating a woman and living with her under a complete and utter pretext. His whole life has been a pretext. I just want the court to know what an evil person he is in the eyes of his family."
44:05 Speaker 00 And I thought that was a very well thought out victim impact statement.
44:10 Speaker 01 Yeah. Well, clearly, if he did get life with parole, he wasn't going to have any family member showing up to give him a, "He's a good guy, let him out."
44:20 Speaker 00 No, he wasn't going to have support, family wise. Now, you know, is he the type of guy who could meet somebody through some kind of correspondence on the outside? And yeah, he probably is.
44:34 Speaker 01 Yeah, I would say, yeah, he probably actually has.
44:36 Speaker 00 Richard gave his own statement. He said, "I was raised right by two beautiful people and I had a beautiful wife and children. The world was our oyster and I blew it over the worst drug there is, the green money. I made a lot of bad choices and decisions. I fell victim to the ultimate drug, the green drug, and that's money. I'm immensely sorry. Words aren't going to do any good. And I just want my family to know, as I sit here now, that I wish none of us had to go through it and endure the pain of this entire court hearing. And I hope one day, when they're ready, if they're ready, that I am blessed to have them at one point in my life."
45:20 Speaker 00 So my thought is, some of that is truthful, some of that is, is maybe some blowing smoke. But, you know, when he said he was raised right, he had a beautiful wife, he had a, a family.
45:34 Speaker 01 Sure did.
45:35 Speaker 00 The world was his oyster, Gibbs, and he blew it.
45:39 Speaker 01 He did, big time.
45:40 Speaker 00 So that part is all true. The, the part that, that did kind of strike me as odd is him saying, I wish none of us had to go through it and endure the pain of this court hearing.
45:54 Speaker 01 The court hearing.
45:55 Speaker 00 Right.
45:56 Speaker 01 Yeah.
45:56 Speaker 00 None of us, that including me.
45:59 Speaker 01 Yeah.
46:00 Speaker 00 So he's including himself in there.
46:02 Speaker 01 Of course he is.
46:03 Speaker 00 At no point does he say anything about his mother.
46:07 Speaker 01 Yeah, and how sorry he is. It, it's his way of hoping that he can talk some family members eventually coming back, probably to help fund his commissary.
46:20 Speaker 00 Yeah, because the only thing that he's really admitting to are the financial crimes, right? He is not admitting to killing his mother. In January 2025, Richard's appeal for a new trial was rejected during two November 2024 hearings. Richard argued that his trial attorney failed to do his job when he allowed his ex-wife to disparage him on the stand and failed to call other witnesses that could have helped his defense. Richard's current attorney, Shante Hightower, asked former defense attorney Daryl Queen why he didn't
46:58 Speaker 00 object to Janine's testimony. Queen responded, "Asking the judge to bail me out when I ask a question is not something I commonly do." Richard also argued that Queen should have had his son Jack testify about his father's good character and threats the family received, and that he should put his former attorney in the fraud case on the stand. That attorney, David Willingham, could have testified about Shirley's fears after she received an anonymous cartoon.
47:33 Speaker 01 That maybe he sent.
47:34 Speaker 00 Possibly. Richard testified at the hearing, there was concern that we were being followed, that the house was being watched. But to your point, Gibbs, David Willingham testified that he suspected Richard was the one who created the cartoons. He said, what made more sense was that someone who was a narcissistic sociopath that was calculating enough to steal from all these people, his own clients, and then to murder his own mother. It made more sense that he would be planting little seeds that would grow into a defense later.
48:12 Speaker 01 There you have it.
48:13 Speaker 00 And I think you and I both were thinking something along those lines.
48:19 Speaker 01 Yeah, I think you said multiple times that it felt like this was something set in motion.
48:25 Speaker 00 But you know what that means? That him killing his mother that night was not a spur of the moment decision, if that's how it went down.
48:36 Speaker 01 Yeah, means he knew what he was doing.
48:38 Speaker 00 He had thought about it, you know, kind of far in advance. In the denial of a retrial issued January 6th, the judge wrote, based on his conversations with Mr. Willingham at the time of trial, Mr. Queen made a reasonable strategic decision not to call Mr. Willingham to testify. I mean, his ex attorney was going to say that he suspected he wrote the cartoons or he authored the cartoons.
49:08 Speaker 01 Yeah. So why would Queen want to call him up there?
49:10 Speaker 00 Right. And that makes sense. The judge also ruled that his son, Jack's testimony would not have affected the trial's outcome, and that his ex-wife's testimony didn't affect the outcome either. If Richard wants to appeal again, he will have to take his case to the Georgia Supreme Court, even if he were to get a new trial and be acquitted of murder, he still faces a 30-year sentence for theft, forgery, and elder abuse.
49:40 Speaker 01 So either way, he's going to be in there for a very long time.
49:42 Speaker 00 He is, but I think this is a guy that deserves to be in prison for the rest of his life and the five years after that.
49:52 Speaker 01 I know stranger things can happen. I just don't see the Georgia Supreme Court overturning this one.
49:57 Speaker 00 No, I don't either. I think like any attorney would. He is throwing everything at the wall, right? My attorneys didn't do this. My attorneys didn't do that. But as we wrap this one up, Gibbs, you know, Richard Merritt had a loving and supportive family. He was on this track that he had kind of built for himself as a successful attorney, but his greed led to his downfall. He wanted more money. And so he stole his client's settlement checks to fund his lavish lifestyle. He was eventually caught. And like you and I have talked about, I don't know how he ever thought he was going to get away with those crimes.
50:42 Speaker 01 No, it's one of those crimes that eventually has an ending. You know, you can, you should be able to foresee it coming. Like you, you're only good for a little bit of time before it's going to catch up with you.
50:54 Speaker 00 It's like, these people are not going to go away.
50:56 Speaker 01 No.
50:56 Speaker 00 Hey, what, what's going on with my settlement? Where's my money? You have all these people. They're, they're not just going to stop asking you about it.
51:04 Speaker 01 Yeah, they're gonna be like, oh, we didn't get one? Okay. Well, you know, we tried. Thanks.
51:07 Speaker 00 Although she was devastated by her son's crimes, Shirley Merritt helped Richard throughout his trial and house arrest. He refused to turn himself in and murdered the woman who supported him more than anyone else. And I think, you know, there are a number of examples of him being a narcissistic sociopath. His ex attorney even called him that. But murdering your mother because she is adamant that you turn yourself in. And I go back to something that you said, which made a lot of sense. If he didn't want to turn himself in.
51:51 Speaker 00 He could have just, you know, taken off.
51:54 Speaker 01 Yeah.
51:54 Speaker 00 He could have grabbed his keys. He could have even stolen her car and taken off. Now, maybe she calls the police, maybe she doesn't, but they're going to learn at some point that he's on the run. It's not going to be any different than the situation he found himself in, with the exception being that he killed his mother.
52:17 Speaker 01 Right.
52:18 Speaker 00 So that makes me think it's something more than, you know, an action that he felt he had to take. Maybe there was some deep seated anger there that we don't really know about, but it's almost like he wanted to kill his mother.
52:36 Speaker 01 Really seems like it.
52:37 Speaker 00 Cause I don't think he had to. I really don't. And, you know, I didn't realize it, but part one, where we talked about his mother's death, came out on Mother's Day. It wasn't planned that way. It just happened to be.
52:51 Speaker 01 Just worked out.
52:51 Speaker 00 It just worked out that way.
52:54 Speaker 01 Well, he definitely had an addiction to money.
52:56 Speaker 00 Yeah, greed, right? He even said that part. And we know greed can make people do some horrible things. The, the, the thing I can't wrap my head around is that, you know, this wasn't a guy down on his luck. This is a guy that was doing very well in life, but he still succumbed to that greed. Right? He just wanted more and more and more.
53:23 Speaker 01 And now his family has to suffer for it, right? Is his wife and kids had to suffer for what he did.
53:29 Speaker 00 And I hope he, he does a little bit of suffering, you know, while he spends the rest of his life in prison, because, you know, he deserves it.
53:37 Speaker 01 Yeah.
53:38 Speaker 00 But that's it for our two parts on Richard Merritt. We've got some voicemails, Gibbs. You want to check those out?
53:45 Speaker 01 Let's hear them.
53:46 Speaker 02 Hey guys, I'm just listening to the Richard Merritt case and I, uh, I believe the Tommy Lee Jones quote that you're looking for from the fugitive is, "All right then, I want a hard target search of every doghouse, whorehouse, henhouse, and outhouse in a five mile radius." That was the exact line that he did not say, although for 20 plus years, I believed that he said that and I quoted it a lot, um, in day to day life for unclear reasons. Um, but yeah, he didn't say that at all. He did say something about a five mile radius, but I don't think he said anything about doghouses, whorehouses, outhouses, or henhouses. But whatever he did say was still cool as hell and, um, stay safe and keep your own mind ticking. Bye.
54:25 Speaker 00 So, you know, we do this whole first episode on Richard Merritt and there's a lot there to dissect, but you know what most people wanted to comment on?
54:35 Speaker 01 What's that?
54:36 Speaker 00 Your Tommy Lee Jones fugitive quote.
54:40 Speaker 01 Or lack, or lack of.
54:41 Speaker 00 Or lack of. That was the, the big topic of, of conversation. But I will agree with her. Tommy Lee Jones just has a way of saying things that, that make him sound cool.
54:55 Speaker 01 Yeah.
54:56 Speaker 00 You know, one of the, the movies I really like him in is, um, No Country For Old Men.
55:02 Speaker 01 You like him in that?
55:03 Speaker 00 I, I like him in that. I like the way he talks.
55:05 Speaker 01 Yeah.
55:06 Speaker 00 You know, he's got that real drawl and, and everything he says kinda comes out a certain way.
55:11 Speaker 01 I thought you were gonna say that one where he was the, uh, deputy chair, sheriff, whatever, watching over the cheerleaders.
55:17 Speaker 00 Oh.
55:18 Speaker 01 I knew that was one of your favorite movies.
55:19 Speaker 00 Is that, is that the one with, uh, Anna Faris in it?
55:23 Speaker 01 Yeah.
55:24 Speaker 00 I've never seen that. I never saw that one.
55:26 Speaker 01 Yeah, you did.
55:27 Speaker 00 But it is strange that-
55:28 Speaker 01 You have a poster behind you.
55:29 Speaker 00 It is strange that he took that role.
55:31 Speaker 01 Yeah.
55:32 Speaker 00 For some, it doesn't seem like him.
55:33 Speaker 02 Hi, I don't know if my first, uh, message went through, so try number two. Anyway, hi Mike and Gibby, this is Francine. I'm from upstate New York and I just wanted you to know that I would search every warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, or doghouse within a five mile radius just to give Gibby a hug because I'm team Gibby, but I do love Mike too. All right. You guys do a great job. Thank you. Bye.
55:59 Speaker 01 Well, you would find me in one of those houses. I'll leave it at that.
56:05 Speaker 01 Shitters full.
56:06 Speaker 00 Yeah. So again, that's what a lot of people really took away from episode one.
56:12 Speaker 01 That's good.
56:13 Speaker 00 Is what I'm getting.
56:14 Speaker 01 That means they're listening.
56:15 Speaker 00 They are listening.
56:16 Speaker 01 And we thank them for that.
56:17 Speaker 00 No doubt about it. All right, buddy. That is it for another episode of True Crime All The Time. So for Mike.
56:23 Speaker 01 And Gibby.
56:24 Speaker 00 Stay safe and keep your own time ticking.
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