- Amy Murray, a Missouri prison nurse, was convicted of poisoning her husband and arson
- She used antifreeze to poison Joshua Murray before setting their home on fire in 2018
- Joshua Murray was initially thought to have died in the fire, but autopsy revealed poisoning
A US prison nurse has been convicted of murder after she poisoned her husband and then set the house on fire to marry an inmate, serving time for murder. The Missouri prison nurse, identified as Amy Murray, has been sentenced to 12 years in jail following an Alford plea to second-degree murder, arson and tampering with evidence. An Alford plea allows the defendant to maintain innocence while maintaining a conviction.
As per the court documents, she used antifreeze to poison her husband and then set their home on fire to cover up the killing, according to a report in People. Her husband, Joshua Murray, was found dead on December 11, 2018, in the bedroom of the couple's burned home in Iberia -- a small city with a population of 700 people.
Initially believed to have died in a fire, an autopsy revealed that Joshua was indeed poisoned. The State Fire Marshal's Office and the Miller County Sheriff's Department later found evidence that an accelerant was used to start the fire.
Authorities arrested Murray three months after her husband's death in February 2019. Investigators also found that Murray had been in regular touch with Eugene Claypool, an inmate at the Jefferson City Correctional Centre. As per prison records, Claypool was serving a 25-year prison sentence for murder in the facility where Murray worked as a nurse.
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The recorded calls between Claypool and Murray showed that the two wanted to be together. Murray often spoke about not wanting to be around her husband. She even told Claypool that they could get married "after her husband passed away, because he was 'out of the picture'.
Murray posted $750,000 bail shortly after her arrest and spent six years trying to fight the charges against her, only to fail this week. As part of the deal, Murray will serve the arson and tampering sentences consecutively, and both will run concurrently with her murder sentence.
Joshua was a father to his son, Braden, and worked as a supervisor for Perini Construction. He had been at the home just 30 minutes before the blaze, and then left to get food with Braden and their two dogs.
