In an effort to hide the crime, a Missouri prison nurse allegedly burned their shared house and poisoned her husband with antifreeze. Being with her lover, a convicted murderer and prisoner at the facility where she worked, was a part of a complex scheme.
Amy Murray, 46, admitted to the charges of second-degree arson and tampering with evidence on Wednesday by entering an Alford plea, which is a plea in which the defendant maintains their innocence while admitting that the prosecution has enough evidence to convict them, according to PEOPLE magazine.
In the end, Murray received convictions of 12 years in prison for the murder charge, 7 years for the arson charge, and 4 years for the evidence tampering charge. Nonetheless, the years of incarceration for the murder charge must be served both concurrently and consecutively with the sentences for the charges of arson and tampering with evidence.
Joshua Murray, 37, died in 2018. His death was first thought to be caused by a house fire, but a medical examiner discovered high levels of antifreeze in his system, leading to the death being declared a homicide. He died in the Iberian house he shared with his wife and son.
Additionally, when the Miller County Sheriff’s Department and the State Fire Marshal’s Office concluded that an accelerant was used to start the fire, new information about the case surfaced.
About 30 minutes prior to the fire, Murray had been in the house. They left with their two dogs and their 11-year-old son before the fire spread.
In February 2019, three months after the incident, Murray was taken into custody. She had been having an affair with Eugene Claypool, an inmate at Jefferson City Correctional Centre, where she worked, at the time of her husband’s death and her arrest.
Since Claypool was incarcerated, all of his phone conversations with Murray were recorded, and police examined them.
Murray reportedly told Claypool that she didn’t want to “be around her husband” and that she intended to wed Claypool after her husband was “out of the picture,” according to ABC 6 broadcasting.
