Former attorney Richard Merritt convicted of killing his mother denied a new trial

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Lawyer accused of fraud, murder denied appeal

Richard Merritt, a prominent attorney-turned-convicted killer, has been denied a second chance to argue his innocence. The FOX 5 I-Team has been covering this case for seven years. Reporter Johnny Edwards has the latest update from Judge Courtney Johnson.

The DeKalb County judge who presided over ex-attorney Richard Merritt’s murder trial has ruled, "Richard Merritt is not entitled to a new trial."

Merritt argued in November that his defense attorney failed him so badly, he should get a second chance to prove he didn’t kill his own mother in 2019.

Judge Courtney Johnson’s decision isn’t surprising and means Merritt must take his case to the Georgia Supreme Court if he wants to appeal.

RELATED: Former lawyer Richard Merritt, accused of killing mother, found guilty on all counts

The backstory:

In 2019, Merritt pled guilty in Cobb County to stealing more than $450,000 from his own clients by settling personal injury lawsuits and keeping settlement checks for himself.

On the day he was set to report to prison, his mother, Shirley Merritt, was cooking him a last spaghetti meal when authorities say Merritt brutally killed her. Police found her dead at the bottom of her basement stairs, with a blade protruding from her right cheek and a 35-pound dumbbell nearby, covered in blood and hair.

Merritt's DNA and fingerprints weren't found at the crime scene.

The defendant’s story:

Merritt later claimed that two men with pistols showed up and killed his mother right in front of him, then threatened the rest of the family.

At the time, with 17 mostly elderly clients ripped off, a lot of people had it out for him. But Merritt never uttered a word of this story to authorities until his trial. Instead, he took his mother's car, cut off his ankle monitor, and ran. Authorities found him eight months later in Nashville, going by the fake name "Mick Malveaux" and living with a new girlfriend he met on a dating app.

In 2023, a DeKalb jury found Merritt guilty on all counts – malice murder, two counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony. Judge Johnson sentenced him to life in prison without parole, plus five years to run consecutively.

His latest argument:

In his motion for a new trial, Merritt argued he had ineffective counsel and that the jury's verdict contradicted the evidence.

Among other points, Merritt said his lawyer, Daryl Queen of the DeKalb County Public Defender's Office, shouldn’t have allowed his ex-wife to tell a story on the stand about a physical altercation between them.

"We were in an argument," Jenine Minicozzi testified in May 2023. "We were in the bedroom. He pushed me to the ground, and I hit my head on the bed."

Merritt’s current attorney, Shantay Hightower, asked Queen in November why he didn’t object when she said that.

"Asking the judge to bail me out when I ask a question is not something I commonly do," Queen responded.

Merritt also argued that Queen should have had his son Jack testify about his father’s good character and threats the family was receiving, and that he should put his former attorney in the Cobb County case on the stand. Attorney David Williingham, Merritt argued, could have testified about his late mother’s fears after receiving an anonymous, hand-delivered cartoon.

Much of Merritt’s argument centered around a series of cartoons that were apparently delivered to Merritt’s mother, ex-wife and Willingham. The cartoons point back to Merritt’s claim that the real killers are still out there.

"There was concern that we were being followed, that the house was being watched," Merritt said in November.

One cartoon depicted a courtroom scene, with word bubbles suggesting the judge and prosecutors in the Cobb case were going too easy on Merritt. Another appeared to depict Disney’s Huey, Dewey and Louie duck characters in a rowboat.

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Why judge won't buy convicted murderers story

Convicted killer Richard Merritt, accused of murdering his mother and fleeing the state, asked his trial judge for another chance to argue his innocence. She denied the appeal. FOX 5 I-Team reporter Johnny Edwards has more on the judge's decision.

What they're saying:

Queen’s reasoning for not putting Merritt’s former defense attorney on the stand became clear when Willingham testified in November.

The Cobb attorney said he suspects Merritt himself created the cartoons, and that using them as an intimidation tactic made no sense.

"What made more sense," Willingham testified, "was that someone who 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."

Willingham’s testimony played into Judge Johnson’s denial of a new trial. She wrote in her order, issued Jan. 6, "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."

"As anticipated, Mr. Willingham’s testimony would have been harmful to Defendant," the order said.

The judge also said Jack’s testimony wouldn’t have affected the trial’s outcome, and that Merritt’s ex-wife’s testimony didn’t affect it. She called the jury’s verdict in the case "sound."

Big picture view:

Even if Merritt were to get a new trial and be totally acquitted of murder, he still faces a 30-year sentence in Cobb County from his theft, forgery and elder abuse conviction there.

The Source: The FOX 5 I-Team has been covering the Richard Merritt case for seven years, even before the killing when Merritt faced allegations of stealing settlement checks from elderly clients. Reporter Johnny Edwards and the I-Team reviewed Merritt’s motion for a new trial, attended two hearings on the motion in November, and obtained a DeKalb County judge’s ruling on the motion last week.

I-TeamDeKalb County