A Missouri prison nurse allegedly poisoned her husband with antifreeze and set fire to their shared home in an attempt to conceal the crime. It was part of an elaborate plan to meet her lover, a convicted murderer and inmate at the prison where she worked.
Amy Murray, 46, entered an Alford plea on Wednesday to charges of second-degree arson and tampering with evidence, in which the defendant maintains their innocence while admitting that the prosecution has sufficient evidence to convict them, according to PEOPLE magazine.
Murray received a 12-year sentence for murder, seven years for arson, and four years for tampering with evidence. However, the sentences for arson and tampering with evidence must be served consecutively and concurrently with the years of prison time sentenced for the murder charge.
Joshua Murray, 37, died in 2018 from what was initially thought to be a house fire, but a medical examiner discovered elevated levels of antifreeze in his system and ruled it a homicide. He died at the home he shared with his wife and son in Iberia.
Furthermore, new information about the case was revealed when the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Miller County Sheriff’s Department determined that an accelerant was used to start the fire.
Murray had been in the house for about 30 minutes before the fire broke out, and they had left with their 11-year-old son and two dogs before it spread.
Murray was arrested three months after the incident, in February 2019. At the time of her husband’s death and arrest, she was having an affair with Jefferson City Correctional Centre inmate Eugene Claypool, who was incarcerated at the facility where she worked.
Police investigated phone calls between Claypool and Murray, which had all been recorded since his incarceration. Murray told Claypool she did not want to “be around her husband” and that she planned to marry Claypool once her husband was “out of the picture,” according to ABC 6.
