A wealthy dentist has been accused of shooting his wife straight through the heart with a shotgun on safari in Africa to be with his longtime girlfriend.
He maintains that she unloaded the gun by mistake.
Lawrence
Larry
Rudolph, 67, has been charged with the murder of his wife, Bianca Rudolph, 30, who died after being shot by her Browning shotgun in their cabin while rushing packing on the morning of October 2016 in the that they were to leave Zambia and begin their journey back to the United States.
He is also charged with mail fraud in what prosecutors describe as a
premeditated crime.
He faces a possible
death penalty
if he is convicted of murder.
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The couple traveled in late September 2016 from their home in Phoenix to Zambia, in southern Africa, where she was determined to add a leopard to her collection of animal trophies, CNN reported.
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Federal prosecutors allege that Rudolph
killed his wife for insurance money and to be with his girlfriend.
He paid her more than $4.8 million after Bianca's death, according to court documents.
Rudolph had a millionaire estate of more than 15 million dollars when his wife died so, according to his lawyer David Markus,
he had no economic reason to kill her.
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The attorneys gave their final arguments Friday in federal court in Denver before handing the case over to a jury of six women and six men.
Jurors did not reach a verdict by the end of the day and will resume deliberations on Monday.
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Markus urged jurors on Friday to dismiss what he said was a government case built on gossip and innuendo and acquit him.
He claimed that federal prosecutors had not proven that Bianca, a nervous traveler, did not accidentally shoot herself.
Markus acknowledged that Rudolph, a big game hunter and former director of an international Safari club who declared he was in an open marriage with his wife, may not be sympathetic but said he remains innocent.
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“Let's give Dr. Rudolph the benefit of the doubt that the law requires.
He didn't do this
," Markus said in closing arguments.
But prosecutors said the facts of the case removed any doubt of Rudolph's guilt, including that the shot hit Bianca's heart at an angle that indicated the gun was slightly above and about 2 to 3.5 feet (1 meter) away. distance from her.
The fatal shot could not have been caused by accidentally dropping the gun, Assistant District Attorney Bryan Fields told jurors.
The day before his wife's funeral, Rudolph applied for life insurance, and the day after that, he left for Las Vegas with his girlfriend, Lori Milliron.
And at the end of the month he moved into his house, according to Assistant District Attorney Garreth Winstead.
Fields said Rudolph killed his wife to be with Milliron, a longtime employee at his Pennsylvania dental franchise, and regain control over her life and finances after Bianca began demanding more of a say in the couple's finances. and to pressure her husband to fire Milliron.
Milliron was tried alongside Rudolph on charges of lying to a grand jury and being an accessory after the fact.
Fields accused Rudolph of crying "crocodile tears" on the stand.
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A waiter at a steakhouse in Phoenix, where Milliron moved to be with Rudolph after Bianca's death, said he heard Rudolph say "I killed my f--- wife for you!"
during a discussion they had in early 2020.
However, Brian Lovelace testified that he was unable to hear the words just before that statement because music was playing.
Rudolph testified that he actually said, "Now they say I killed my f---wife for you!"
after learning that the FBI was investigating him.
During the trial, the Rudolphs' longtime hunting guide, Mark Swanepoel, testified that mistakes can always happen with firearms.
"The devil loads the shotgun," he assured.
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"The devil loads the shotgun but it's the demons that go after the man who wields it," Fields said.