The multi-state manhunt for
former Smyrna attorney Richard Merritt continues while family members
are in hiding from the suspected killer.
Merritt
pleaded guilty last month to theft, forgery and elder-exploitation
charges, admitting to settling clients’ lawsuits without telling them
and keeping their checks for himself.
Cobb
Superior Court Judge Robert Flournoy III sentenced Merritt to 30 years
with 15 to serve in prison and the rest on probation, and ordered to pay
$454,706 in restitution.
Flournoy also gave Merritt
two weeks to get his affairs in order before reporting to prison, but
investigators believe he instead stabbed his mother to death, removed
his tracking ankle monitor and fled in his mother’s car. 77-year-old
Shirley Merritt was found dead in her Stone Mountain home Feb. 2.
Merritt’s
ex-wife, Jenine Merritt, told FOX 5’s senior reporter Dale Russell she
is staying in an undisclosed location while her ex-husband is on the
loose.
“He’s a
deceitful, immoral person, but I never thought he would kill someone,”
she said. “The kids and I are scared, and now that we know what he’s
capable of, we are afraid that he’s going to turn up.”
Jenine
Merritt told Russell her now-ex had called her the night before he was
to begin his prison sentence and told her he refused to let anybody else
have her.
Jenine
Merritt told the TV station her former husband has connections with the
Florida panhandle, New Orleans and New York. She said he loves fishing
and Irish pubs and that she doubts he’ll be able to keep in hiding for
long.
“I think he’s such a
narcissist and he has to have an audience. I don’t think he can keep to
himself forever. I think he’s going to start going out in public and
chit-chatting with people and getting cocky,” she said.
Richard
Merritt was last seen driving a silver 2009 Lexus RX350 with Georgia
tag CBV 6004. Authorities believe he may have shaved his head or
otherwise changed his appearance.
Jenine
Merritt said he can grow back his fine, sandy brown hair in a month or
so, and grow a goatee in two weeks, though he can’t grow a beard.
The U.S. Marshals said Merritt should be considered armed and dangerous, and his brother Robert Merritt agrees.
“I would be wary if I saw him, just to give him a wide berth,” he told FOX 5. “Just call 911.”
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1 comment:
He is a very dangerous man and if he's not caught soon someone is going to get hurt.
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