True Crime All The Time - Richard Merritt Part 1

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

Richard Merritt was a well-known, successful attorney in Smyrna, Georgia, until he was caught stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from his clients. Richard pleaded guilty to the financial crimes and was given two weeks to get his affairs in order before he had to report to prison. Richard was willing to kill to avoid going to prisonJoin Mike and Gibby as they discuss Richard Merritt. His mother, Shirley, supported him throughout his legal troubles and was planning to drive him to prison on the day he was supposed to turn himself in. When Richard’s family received notice that he had cut off his ankle monitor and was nowhere to be found, they worried for Shirley’s safety. You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 434 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime Mike Gibson. How are you? Hey, I'm doing good, man. How about you? I'm doing great. You and I just talked about it on our Patreon episode. But, you know, I've been watching a lot of movies and gave my opinion of this new movie

baby girl. Yeah, you did. You know, not going to spoil it for those that haven't watched the or listened to the Patreon episode yet. Also, watched the Lighthouse and the Vanishing. So, you know, I've been catching up on some of the movies you wanted me to watch, but also venturing out, maybe for the good, maybe for the bad. Yeah, I'll let you know when I, uh, go out and watch, uh, the baby girl.

Yeah. Well, I'll let you know what I. I am very interested to hear your opinion. Yeah. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had KYW. Hey, K. Y. Or Kentucky W. I'm not sure. Sure which one. Love some K-Y. Robert.

Hey, Robert. Kathleen Matthews. What's going on, Kathleen? Stephen Negley. Hey, Stephen. Lona Vandenheaver. That's a long name. What's up, Lona?

Kazadeen. Ah, Kaz. I feel like it, remember that song, Shaka. Shaka Khan? Yeah. Let me rock you Shacker Khan. It's all I want to do. I feel like, Casa.

Okay. I don't know how that's equivalent, but I see how your mind works. My head is. Jennifer Phillips jumped out at our highest level. Oh, that's awesome. Thanks, Jennifer. And last but not least, Katrina five. Hey, there's Katrina.

And then if we go back into the vault, this week, we selected Veronica Wool. What's up, Wolf? So we appreciate the new support, the continued support. We also had a great PayPal donation from Deanne Padilla. Padilla. Yeah. I like that. So thanks to everyone.

Gives, right now we have a new episode out on True Crime All the Time on Zalt, where we're talking about 15-year-old Jennifer Padea. who disappeared from her home in Virginia in February of 1987. And now there's a, you know, a number of people that police have looked at, but there just hasn't been enough evidence to charge anyone. Yeah. So there's persons of interest that we'll be talking about. Always hate those stories with the missing young ones, but it's a good story and it has to be heard.

and always just hope for the best. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, you got to get the word out for sure. All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time? I am. We're actually doing a two-parter on Richard Merritt. He was a well-known, successful attorney in Smyrna, Georgia, until he was caught stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from his clients. So, you know, he's got this issue, right, that,

he pleads guilty to. And he's about ready to get his affairs in order. They give him some time to do that before he has to go to prison. All of a sudden, his family gets noticed that he's cut off his ankle monitor and he's nowhere to be found. I wonder if he bought my book off of Amazon. On how to successfully get rid of your ankle monitor and all of that. I know it's sold well.

It did pretty good. There's a reason for it because a lot of people are forced to wear. these GPS ankle monitors. And I did the whole, you know, pictures and tortorial and, you know, sketches, things like that. You did pictures and tortorials? Yes. Okay.

Drew them myself. So in part one of the Richard Merritt episodes, we'll cover his childhood, family dynamics, his career as an attorney, how he was caught stealing from his clients. And then kind of what happened on the day Richard was supposed to. to turn himself in. Like I said, you know, it's, you know, maybe not the most well-known story, but there was so much to it. You know, as we started researching it, that it just had to be a two-parter. Very interesting. Because there wasn't really, you know, anything that you could leave out. Robert Merritt Sr. met his future wife Shirley in 1955 at their high school in Mississippi.

The two fell in love and eventually got married. Their first son, Robert Jr. was born in 1960. Robert served in the Air Force and Shirley was a real estate agent. The family lived in an expensive area. And because of this, Robert and Shirley were described as frugal people. They were described as a team who divided their roles well. Maybe it's a little bit of the military coming out in him. It could be. It could also be, you know, the generational.

You know, I've talked about it before. my grandparents or that generation that kind of grew up in the Great Depression, most of them were pretty frugal people. Yeah. You know, because they had experienced some rough times. So when they were able to accumulate some money, they squirled it away.

They, they, you know, they didn't spend it on frivolous stuff. Now, my grandparents went out to eat and they did stuff like that, but they bought new cars every now and then. They didn't go crazy.

No, weren't taking cruises or, you know, jet setting off to Monaco or going gambling or, you know, things like that. Getting the casino late at night, huh? No, they weren't doing any of that. But you talk about a married couple as a team who divided their roles well. Okay. That sounds like it could be a recipe for a good marriage.

I think so. I'm hearing teamwork. I'm hearing, you know, sharing of responsibility. Yeah. All of that seems good. You never want one person to have to take on everything. You know what's not in the word team? I?

Yeah. Their son, Richard, was born in 1974. Robert and Richard were never close because of the large age gap. But Robert did like him. And that's nine years. It's a pretty good gap, right? when it comes to older brother, younger brother, I don't know what the age differences are between your brothers.

Two. Yeah. That's, we all can kind of do similar things. Right. When there's only a couple of years. When it's nine years, you know,

Robert is getting ready to go out on a date and, you know, Richard's playing with Lincoln logs. They're really far apart. Yeah. I'm thinking at that point, Richard is probably irritating Robert a little bit. Yeah, yeah, probably.

In 1987, after 24 years of service, Robert Sr. retired from the Air Force and got a new job working for a defense contractor in Saudi Arabia. Probably making some big money. Could be. I know a lot of people who retire who go into kind of the defense contractor type work do make some money. I did some oversee off-shoring kind of stuff before. Now I'll talk about it. Oversea-offshoring. Yeah, that sounds like a real thing.

But it was said that, you know, the family kind of saw this move as an opportunity for a new adventure after years of hard work. They took Richard with them, but Robert Jr. stayed behind because he was in graduate school. He said both of his parents worked hard to pay for their son's education. that's good because a lot of parents can't do that and I think it's getting harder and harder right tuition prices are through the roof a bag of Doritos is $17 yeah so you know again but is that part of them being frugal they're spending on what they feel matters to them sure yeah and to a lot of people their kids education really matters I would say to most people yeah I mean everybody had to It's different priorities, but however you want to align those priorities, you're going to be

frugal to defeat that. But this moved to Saudi Arabia, marked a big change for the family, and not just because they were moving to a new country. Robert was making more money than he ever had before. He and Shirley were able to hire a cook, a housekeeper, a driver, and they had a lot more disposable income than they were used to. Shirley made many friends and loved hosting and throwing parties. I wouldn't mind having a driver.

Now see, I was thinking I'd rather have a cook. Yeah. I don't mind driving myself. That's not irritating to me. It's the cooking. The cooking, yeah. And my wife would probably say the same thing. Yeah.

She does not like to cook. Can you imagine, though, the change moving from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia. It'd be a huge change, you know. lifestyle difference, culture difference. Well, and then on top of it, you now suddenly have a lot more money than you're used to. Right. I got a buddy that went over to Dubai, and he was retired military, started doing, opened up a limousine business. And he was raking in the money, you know?

Good for him. Yeah, but he had the connections because of his military experience over there and did, did pretty well. Robert Jr. called this an impressionable time for Richard. He enjoyed the luxurious lifestyle they had in Saudi Arabia. Well, who doesn't enjoy a luxurious lifestyle? I'm kind of thinking about Schitt's Creek. Yeah. You know, if they could have gone back to that luxurious lifestyle, I think they would have. In a heartbeat. The family traveled back to the States to attend Robert Jr.'s graduation in June 1987. Robert noted that the issues between him and Richard worsened around that time.

Richard often tried to get a rise out of his older brother. And Robert called Richard a master manipulator. Yeah, we all know somebody that's a master manipulator. Yeah. Yeah, and we've talked about a lot of them in the cases that we do. Oh, yeah. A lot of criminals are master manipulators. Robert flew to Saudi Arabia for his first and only visit in December, 1987.

this was the family's first Christmas since Robert Sr. got his new job. And the parents were able to buy extra gifts that year. So, you know, it does sound to me, like, you know, we talked about how frugal they were. And now all of a sudden, they got quite a bit more money. They are a little bit less frugal. Okay. We got you an extra gift. Get out here to get it.

Robert then settled in Atlanta after his college graduation. The American school in Saudi Arabia could only accommodate students through the ninth grade. Robert Sr. and Shirley decided that they would send Richard to live with his brother in Atlanta so he could attend a prestigious private school. Because they can afford it now. Yeah. I mean, you have to believe this guy was raking in the money. And I think it's tax-free.

I can't guarantee that, but some reason I... Can you guarantee anything that you say on this podcast? absolutely no like would you put your house on anything that you say or your life no you could be right i have no idea but it was said that the relationship between the brothers was tense robert struggled to get richard to do any chores around the house and he felt stuck being richards cook driver and housekeeper robert did acknowledge that they had some good times as well but you know to me it sounds like, I don't know.

Robert was put in in kind of a difficult situation. It's almost like, here, you need to take care of your brother. Right. And oh, by the way, he's not going to pitch in

in the slightest. Yeah. It's all on you. Yeah. It's all on you. So I could see why the relationship would be tense. We just talked about marriage being a partnership,

right? Sharing responsibility. sharing duties, well, this is kind of a relationship where you would expect some of those same things. Right. I mean, Richard is not a little kid anymore. He's fully capable of taking out the trash, maybe cooking a dinner here and there, cleaning the dishes.

I think it's going a little farther if you start sharing duty. Yeah, shouldn't share that. By 1993, Richard was studying law at the University of Georgia. Like his brother, his parents' friends, financed his college education. So again, when we're talking about money, right, they were sending him to a private school before college. Those are expensive. Now, you're talking about law school and things like that for Richard. They paid for Roberts College. That was a lot of dough. Yeah, they'd laid it out. The brothers received a call from their father's company physician,

who informed them Robert Sr. was in heart failure. Robert and Shirley moved to Stone Mountain, Georgia, and Robert officially retired. And I feel like Stone Mountain is a place that you drive through on 75. Some reason I'm trying to recall it, too. I've seen it. Like either we've been there, or I mean, I've been there or. I don't think you and I have been there together because I would remember that. Yeah, yeah.

Although the family was worried about. Robert Sr.'s health, it was still an exciting time in their lives. Robert Jr.'s first son was born in 1994, and Robert Sr. and Shirley were thrilled to be grandparents. Yeah, absolutely. Be a granddad or grandpa or papa or p-pee. So, you know, you and I are both getting to that age where sometime in the near future, we could potentially be grandfathered. I myself, I'm looking forward to it. Pretty cool grandpals. We might have to, you know, either change the name of this podcast or come up with a new podcast centered around, you know,

grandpa's talking about true crime. I don't know. We'll think about it. The Grandad True Crime Show. After graduation, Richard married his college sweetheart, Janine Minicozy. She was in veterinary school and he was on track to become an attorney. both of them were career-driven and seemed like a good match. And that can work, right?

When you have two people who are, you know, A-type personalities, career-driven, it can also cause some issues. Could. When you have two people who are too much alike, Richard failed his first attempt at the bar exam. He would have to take it two more times. Before he passed, he was eager to start working. According to Robert Jr., Richard believed being a lawyer was his key to a wealthy lifestyle and travel opportunities.

Passing the law exam, the bar. Bring back fond memories for you. Well, I mean, I got out in the first round, but I understand how it could take somebody two, three, four. I don't know how all in common that is. From my understanding, it's a very hard exam. Yeah, yeah, it's not easy. I mean, I understand how you could just ace it, the first. first time, as smart as you are. But I don't think, I won't say the majority, but I'm sure there are a

lot of people who have to take it multiple times. Yeah, I think if I wasn't Mensa, I probably would have taken at least another two, three, ten times. Yeah. Okay. The family experienced a tragedy in November 2000 when Robert Sr. died suddenly while on an anniversary trip with Shirley. Shirley was devastated. One friend recalled that she was lost without her husband. She focused on spending as much time as she could with her grandchildren and got a job at the local Children's Hospital as a PRN. She worked when other staff members were sick or on vacation. She enjoyed her work and was slowly but surely adjusting to life without her husband. That'd be rough, you know, when you spend most of your life with this person that you love.

And all of a sudden they're gone? Yeah. Yeah. It would be very tough. But it sounds like she threw herself into other things. You know, a job she enjoyed, doting on her grandchildren. And I think those are all good things. It was said that she was proud of both her sons and her grandchildren.

Richard worked for the Georgia Attorney General's office. He then worked for several private firms. He spent time with some of the wealthiest people in the Atlanta area. And he and Janine traveled often. So maybe he, you know, was right when he thought that this was the ticket for him to become wealthy to have this kind of jet setting lifestyle. Sounds like he's immersed in it. Yeah. And there are some wealthy people in the Atlanta area.

Oh, yeah. There are also some wealthy sections of Atlanta. That's true. In 2003, Richard and Janine moved to Smyrna, Georgia to bring. to prepare for their growing family. Their son was born in 2004 and their daughter was born in 2006. In 2010, Richard opened his own law firm in Smyrna, the Law Office of Richard v. Merritt. So, you know, it seemed like to me, Gibbs, he was doing great.

The family was doing great. Sounds like he had established business, connections. You know, wife, two children. But this is what we talk about a lot, right? When you're looking at a family from the outside, it seems like they have this perfect life. And I think to most people it did seem like Richard had an ideal life. He's got this beautiful family. He has a thriving business.

A friend of Richards estimated he was making between 150,000 and 200,000 at that time. Okay. That's good money. Yeah. He's doing fine. In May 2017, Richard received a court summons after returning from a family vacation. The summons concerned as former clients, sisters Claire and Ingrid Hanson. Richard represented them during a lawsuit.

The Hanson sisters accused Richard of stealing their settlement check. Well, that's a problem. I think it's a big problem. According to Fox 5, Claire and Ingrid Hansen tried to have Richard arrested in 2015. They filed a complaint and signed an affidavit and submitted a letter describing how Richard illicitly settled our case for $75,000 and kept the money. Illicitly settled our case. That's not good.

No, it makes it sound like he didn't even consult them. Right. Too subtle. My clients will take that. Thank you. And can you have the check made out to me, please? Yeah. The sisters told Fox Fond that an investigator said he couldn't pursue a,

criminal case, a sheriff's spokesman told the outlet that investigators thought the sisters were involved in a civil dispute. And the case would be settled in civil court, but there was no civil case. It's so bizarre because, you know, I mean, I think most attorneys are considered officers of the court. So they should have like the highest standard should. Well, you think about doctors, attorneys, professionals, right, like that. As, being of the highest character. But here again, it's kind of like the thing that we say about everybody. You have a certain percentage of people who are outstanding at what they do, right? They follow, you know, every letter of the law, whatever they're supposed to do. You got some people

in the middle that still do that, but they're not quite as good, right? They're mediocre. They're good, but they're not the best. And then you've got a certain percentage who either are, terrible or don't care about the ethics or whatever it might be. And I think that goes with everything. I think you're right. You just don't want to have that bottom tier doing stuff for you. Well, ideally, you know, a company would kind of weed those people out, right, during the evaluation process. But they're probably just going to go somewhere else. And is there work ethic or way of thinking going to get any better, probably not. And when you have somebody that's an independent contractor, you know, working for

themselves, there is no HR or somebody monitoring what they do, right? Well, and nobody's getting a review. Yeah. If you own your own attorney's office. I mean, it's like, you know, the podcast, I give myself a review every year. Mm-hmm. And it differs wildly from the one that I do for you. It does.

We seem to be at odds over that. We agree to disagree. In February 2017, the Hanson sisters went back to court and asked a judge to take out a citizen's warrant against Richard. And the judge agreed. So what this did was it sparked a massive fraud investigation that led to Richard's arrest on January 31, 2008. Like we said up front, Richard was accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from multiple clients, most of them elderly people. He was forced to surrender his law license and his wife fouled for divorce. The divorce was finalized a few months later and Richard lost custody of his kid.

Sounds like the castle crumbled. Very quickly. I think they went from being this kind of well-respected power couple. Right. In the Atlanta area, you said it. They had all these connections to rich, influential people. But what happens when you get caught up in, in this type of scandal? Well, number one, your, your name is smeared. It is. Your reputation goes down the toilet. And those people abandon you. Yeah, they walk away quickly. Because they don't want to be associated with a person, who is willing to do this type of thing.

And it sounds like his wife didn't either. I'm assuming she didn't know anything about it. We'll give her that, you know, that benefit of the doubt. And that would make sense, right? Is he really going to tell his wife that he's doing this? Is she that close to the business? He was probably able to do it and she had no idea. That's what I'm thinking.

But here's what I don't get in these types of situations. You know, how much time did this guy spend in school? How much effort did he put forth, you know, to get his law degree, to get his law license? Then he worked until he was able to establish his own practice. And we said it. He was making very good money. So you're going to risk all of that plus your family over what? A few hundred thousand dollars that you make every year?

Greed does a weird thing. It does. But again, it's hard to understand. Fox 5 spoke to a few of Richard's victims. Tina Saylor, Merna Evans, and Beverly Braswell were injured in car accidents. They hired Richard Merritt to sue for damages in medical care and won settlements. However, Richard never told them about the settlements and stole all their money. Beverly won 50,000, Tina won 75,000, and Merna won 1,000.

$19,000. Like $134,000 he took. Oh, I like the math. It was quick math. Quick guy. But here's the thing, Gibbs. How do you think he's going to get away with that? Like these people are never going to come back and say, hey, what's going on with my case? Well, exactly. That's what I'm trying to make sense out of what he was trying to do here, because eventually your client's going to say, hey, what's going on in my case? And if they don't like the answer, they're going to look into it. and it might stumble across, but wait a minute, the insurance company or the whoever you're suing and said, hey, we settled with you. Why are you calling us? Yeah, it probably wouldn't be all that hard to figure out if you did a little digging. I mean, to me, this is not like a Ponzi scheme,

right, where you're covering some people with other people's money and you're just putting it off until you get caught. This is like you're going to get caught and there's no way. to really delay it. I just don't get the thinking behind it. And I'm sure these folks needed that money. Well, you know, you think about being injured in a car accident, right? You're going to rack up, most likely, quite a bit of medical bills, which I'm sure a lot of that money was probably going to.

Beverly Braswell lived in Richard's neighborhood and saw firsthand his lavish lifestyle. She told Fox Fott. I felt betrayed. I felt violated. The lies, the deceit. I trusted this person. I mean, there's just some professionals that you just have that trust factor with, right? Your doctor, your lawyer, you just expect that they're going to do the right thing and be truthful with you. Yeah. And I can see how all those emotions would come into play once, you know, everything came to life. Beverly added that hospitals were pressing her for payment, but she didn't have the settlement money so she couldn't pay them. All three women were told by lawyers that they couldn't get the settlement overturned.

Well, I'm guessing because he was their attorney, he probably had documents that stated that and that allowed him to sign the settlement statements on their behalf. But it's just a really shitty thing to do. Well, and I can only imagine the helpless feeling. that these people must have been, you know, having. They know what happened. They try to get law enforcement to get involved. They, they won't really do anything. They're being told that there's not really a legal remedy as far as getting the settlements

thrown out and, you know, going back through with them. Now, these women didn't know each other, but Tina Saylor began posting negative reviews of Richard's law firm. for example in September 2017, Tina left a review on Yale that said, he is a thief. He settles people's cases without their knowledge, forges signatures, and steals their money, all the while leading them to believe he has filed suit on their behalf. There are currently six outstanding lawsuits against him for malpractice, run, run, far away from him. And there is like 33,

exclamation points in this Yelp review. Yeah, Ron. She is wanting to make sure that people take notice of this. Well, you know what? They should run. Well, yeah. And, you know, some of these reviews did help others realize they weren't alone. But, you know, as this was going on,

Richards going on deep sea fishing trips and resort vacations. he's living it up spending their money. Not feeling bad about it, is he? No. No, I don't think this is a guy who felt bad about it at all. In February 2018, Richard pleaded guilty to stealing the $75,000 settlement in the Hanson sisters case.

Now, he probably felt bad about that, but only because he had to plead guilty, or only because he got caught. On March 23rd of that year, Richard was indicted for felony, elder abuse, theft, exploitation, and check from. The indictment lists out all 34 counts and the exact amounts Richard stole from his victims between 2014 and 2017.

34 counts. So this wasn't something he did three people. No. He was doing this to a number of his clients. Janine attended Richard's bond hearing and asked the judge, to keep him in jail. She said per Fox 5, I'm in financial ruin.

He squandered every cent we have. So he even took his own family down. Yeah, he destroyed his family. Not only the family unit, the bond, right, the fact that they could no longer stay together, but apparently he left them in financial ruin. I don't know about you, but I'm starting to get the feeling here that Richard

Merritt is a guy who only cares about Richard Merritt. Oh, absolutely. It's pretty bad when your wife or maybe at this point, your ex-wife, specifically asks the judge to keep you in jail. Yeah. She is not happy with you. Keep that POS. Yeah. Yeah. In jail, please. Shirley Merritt supported Richard by paying his bond and she even used her house as collateral. She pleaded with the judge to let Richard stay with her while awaiting trial. She showed up to every court date and she even started working extra hours at the hospital. Her friends noticed that she seemed tired and physically weaker. Most likely due to the stress she was going through surely was embarrassed and devastated by Richard's crimes,

but she was reluctant to talk about it with anyone. Well, she's a mom. She's a mom. She's going to stand by herself. son. But, you know, here's the thing that I don't think has talked about enough. Yes, you have the victims of Richard's crimes and they suffered financially, emotionally, all of that. But then you have all these people within his family, right? His wife suffered emotionally, financially. It sounds like his mother did as well. I mean, it's a lot of stress, I would think. Oh, of course. She's put it in her house.

up for him now. This guy is a selfish prick. And he's worse. She's working extra hours just to to help him out. But think about distress that would come from one of your kids being charged with just a nasty crime. Yeah. Now we're not talking murder. No. But we are talking elder abuse, theft, exploitation. Those are nasty things. It is. Not proud. You can't be proud of them. Shouldn't be. No, you would be embarrassed. You would be embarrassed. You'd be upset and embarrassed. On January 18th, 2019, Richard pleaded guilty to the remaining counts against him.

The court heard that he defrauded 17 people of almost half a million dollars. And it was said that most of the victims were elderly people or were filing medical malpractice claims. Makes it even worse. It does. Yeah, when you pray on the elderly or the people that need. help to pay medical bills. It came out that Richard would tell the victims. He was still pursuing legal action,

but he had already closed the cases without informing them and kept the settlement money. He used the stolen funds to purchase a car and pay for vacations. Prosecutors had evidence that Richard forged signatures on court documents and checks,

as well as fake notary seals between 2014 and 2017. And I think that, you know, does shed some light on how he was able to do this. You know, why did the clients not know that these cases were settled? And it sounds like it's because he was forging their signatures. Yeah. Breaking all type of laws. Prosecutor Jason Marbitt said in a news release, per the Atlanta Journal Constitution,

The victims came to him for help, and he helped himself instead. Several victims testified in court. One victim called Richard a scoundrel. It's a word you don't hear used all that much nowadays. A dirty scrundle. I can't. What is the word? Say it again.

Dirty rotten. You dirty rotten scrondle. Scrondle. Scron. I can't. say it. You know there was a movie by that title with Michael Kane. Yeah. Do you remember that? I do remember that. Yeah, but scondrial, I do not think is a word. Another person said he was a professional conman. And you would have to say that he was. Yeah, of course. Richard was sentenced to 15 years in prison

and 15 years probation in order to pay the full amount in restitution. So not only are you going to do big boy prison time. But even after you're out, you're going to be on 15 years probation. And you got to pay back the almost half a million dollars anyway. And I'm assuming you lose your law license. Oh, I think that's a given. The judge granted Richard two weeks to get his affairs in order before reporting to prison.

He was required to wear an ankle monitor and remain with his mother. He was supposed to turn himself in on February 1st. 2019. So, you know, was that the right call? Is that a normal thing? I mean, obviously, we know already what's about to happen or we've hinted at it. I'm sure the judge looked back at it afterwards and said, I wish I hadn't done that. I think they were a little lenient on him by letting him go home and get his affairs in order. Now, it would be different, right, if he had been convicted of murder. But I think a lot of times, you know, especially, like on TV shows or movies.

We're so accustomed to the defendant being handcuffed and led away right after the sentencing. But obviously that's not what happened here. The judge said, you know, keep the ankle monitor on, go back with your mom. You got a couple of weeks before you have to turn yourself in, get your affairs in order. Richard's cousin, Mike Jeffcoat, offered to drive Richard to prison. On February 1st, he received the following text from Shirley. It read, I really wish you wouldn't come until another weekend. Things are not good here.

I can drive him to the jail and get myself home without any problems. Richard has some things he has to take care of this morning, so we don't need to leave here before two. That's why he originally said for you not to get here before one-third. He has a lot of things we need to talk about. Okay. I mean, he's been home for two weeks. What are you waiting until the last day to talk about?

Yeah, that does seem a little bit odd. But, you know, this text is reportedly coming from his mother to, you know, Richard's cousin. If you're the cousin and you get this text, you're going to be like, okay, well, Shirley's saying this, I'm not going to go. Yeah. At 5.30 p.m., Robert Merritt received a call from Cobb County authorities, informing him, Richard didn't turn himself in, and they were initiating a search. Robert expressed concern for his mother and asked for a welfare check. So the police went out to Shirley's home, but nothing seemed out of place.

From the outside, there were no windows broken or doors open. Richard's car was in the driveway, but Shirley's car was gone. With no evidence of forced entry, officers were unable to enter the home. You think with the police a little concern starting to sit down? in? I think so. I think so. And it's kind of rough, right? When you're going out to do a welfare check on somebody, if you don't have the legal authority to enter the home, which they didn't, well, what are you going to do? If the person doesn't answer the door, they could be inside needing help, but you can't bust in. It's true. The police focused on finding Richard by analyzing data from

his ankle monitor. The ankle at lost signal. at a gas station in Cartersville at 4.14 p.m. Richard was captured on surveillance entering the gas station and purchasing food before driving off in Shirley's missing vehicle. The ankle monitor was later found in a trash can at the gas station. So I don't know if this came straight out of your self-published book on how to subvert the GPS ankle monitoring process or how to get rid of it. There is a paragraph on subverting.

Okay. Maybe he bought it off Amazon. It's only three pages long, but... Very detailed with pictures. On the morning of February 2nd, 2019, Mike Jeff Coat obtained a spare key and drove to Shirley's house to check on her. He called out to Shirley and received no response.

He walked through the first floor, didn't see anything, but he did notice that the linens were on the floor. in one of the first floor bedrooms. Mike opened the door leading to the basement. He walked down the steps and was unable to see anything until he turned on the light. He found Shirley's body based on her severe injuries. It was obvious he was looking at a crime scene. He checked to see if Shirley had a pulse and left immediately to call police once he confirmed she was dead.

Wow. And once investigators got there, they found a horrific crime. She really had been beaten with a 35-pound dumbbell. She'd also been stabbed. The knife blade protruded from her right cheek, and the broken handle was found nearby. This guy is a monster. That's your mom. It would be monstrous to do that to anyone.

Yeah. But think about, yeah, you're right, this is your mother. The person who gave birth to you, the person who took care of you when you were little. The person that put up her house for you. Yeah. Yeah. Started working extra hours just to try to help you out. Authorities who searched the house found evidence that Shirley was cooking spaghetti,

Richard's favorite meal before she was killed. And of course, Richard was the main suspect. I mean, who else were they going to look at or think it was? But here's another thing. A mom going out of her way to cook her son's favorite meal before he was. before he has to go off to prison. Yeah. She's just trying to be a good mom.

And her payback for that was being beaten with a 35 pound dumbbell and stabbed to the point where the knife is sticking out of her cheek. So even though, you know, they thought that Richard was the main suspect, his DNA and fingerprints were not found at the crime scene. per Fox 5. And that seems strange to me because he'd been living there. You would expect to find his DNA and fingerprints throughout the house. On February 8th, 2019, the U.S. Marshals released an image of Richard at the gas station moments after he cut off his ankle monitor. The Marshalls received tips of alleged sightings from all over the country. And you know, I got a real Tommy

Lee Jones vibe here. U.S. Marshals as he's searching for Harrison Ford. Now, the difference there was Harrison didn't do it, right? It's true. I'm sure we're going to find out a little differently here with Richard Merritt. We're going to set up a five-mile radius. That's all I remember. I was that all you remember.

Wasn't a bad Tommy Lee Jones, I got to give you that. I don't remember it wasn't a great one, but it wasn't a mile or? I don't know. Yeah. It was a pretty good. That's what I remember. Richards, former attorney David Willingham, issued a statement to local outlet WSBTV.

He said, for an entire year, my client was out on bail. Not once did he hint or suggest in any way that he would run from justice, much less show any signs that he was capable of such heinous violence, towards of all people his mother. Days before he was to turn himself in and begin serving his sentence. Mr. Merritt sounded upbeat and optimistic about his chances of parole after serving just five years.

I simply cannot believe this has happened. Well, I guess he fooled you. You know, which is, I think, something that a lot of people like Richard Merritt are good at. Manipulator. Yeah. So part of that is what? Fooling people, showing them one side when really, you've got this other side that is your true side or your true intentions.

Master liar. Richard's ex-wife, Jeanette, told Fox 5, he's a deceitful and moral person. But I never thought he would kill someone. The kids and I are scared. And now that we know what he's capable of, we're afraid he's going to turn up. I bet she was. Yeah, I mean, I think there has to be a lot of fear. Think about her standing up in front of the judge and saying, you know,

Don't let this guy out. You know, we don't even want him out on bond. She divorced him. I'm sure they were not on great terms. She had to be fearful that maybe he was going to come after her or her and the kids or a combination of both. I'm sure she was also thinking, who the hell is this guy? This guy I fell in love with these years back. Who is he today?

That I spent all these years with. I had two kids with. It's like I didn't know this. guy at all. Right. Or did he change at some point? And that's kind of a question that I always have about some of these individuals, you know, were they doing some of these things and, and exuding some of the signs all the way along? True. Or were they hiding it for many, many years? And then eventually it came out. It came out. Well, we said earlier, right? Money can make people do some strange things and sometimes some really bad things.

You know what else can? The fear of going to prison. For sure. Nobody likes to go to prison besides that one guy. There's always that one guy. Can't wait to go. Who takes the rap for other people just so he can, you know, make sure he gets three hot meals or three hots in a cop.

Janine shared what she believed happened on February 1st saying, I think he had decided he wasn't going, clearly. And he told her he wasn't going. I think he snapped. He was probably drunk. I know he was drinking heavily the last couple of days. I think he just snapped. I feel like he did more than just snap.

Well, if he was drinking heavily, could that contribute to, you know, not making the best decisions? Well, absolutely. Yeah. If you're super, super drunk and, but, yeah,

I don't want to make any excuses for this guy at all. Killing your mom. Come on. Now, I don't, I don't know why you. he'd be drinking heavily the last couple of days. Maybe he just thought, well, I'm not going to get any alcohol for quite a long time. It seemed like you'd want to be sober and soak in your last remaining days of freedom. I'd be sitting there watching all the prison movies,

taking notes. Well, but maybe he knew he was never going anyway. Yeah. So drink up, I guess, is what he thought. Janine said that after he ran away, she and the kids moved to an undisclosed location the night he was supposed to begin his sentence. He called and threatened her. Janine was asked if he threatened to kill her. She responded not in those words. He said that he refused to ever let anyone else have me. Oh, there it is. I can't have you. Nobody's going to have you. So many times. Yeah. And you can word it differently, but it's all the same thing. Right. but now you can understand why she she would be very fearful. It wasn't just the thought that he might show up.

He actually threatened to kill her. Robert Merritt told Fox Foxx that their family roots are in Mississippi, but that Richard liked New Orleans and the Florida Panhandle area. Janine agreed with Robert, but added New York is a possibility for where Richard might flee. They thought that he might. go somewhere close to a body of water because he enjoyed fishing. They noted that strangers would likely think he was funny, smart, and engaging since Richard could strike up a conversation with anyone. They both believed he would not be able to stay in hiding long. So there's a couple of things

that are interesting there for me. I get it. There's a couple of places he likes. Well, could you choose one of those places? Yeah. I think New York is always a possibility just for the sheer number of people. That's true. Just blend right on in. A little bit easier to blend in, possibly. But this idea that, you know, he was funny, smart, and engaging. Well, that's kind of the deadly cocktail, right? For a good con man. Yeah, sure. It helps to be all those things. But this idea that they thought he wouldn't be able to stay in hiding long. Janine said, 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, public, and chit-chatting with people and getting cocky. And why would that be? My thought is people like Richard Merritt think that they're smarter than everyone else and that they can do and get away with just about anything they want to. Yeah, and they truly believe it until one day they get caught. Well, he was already caught. Well, that's true. And now he's on the run. Yeah.

So, you know, if anything, this is just going to kind of emboldened him because he's already done it once. In April 2019, Inspector Frank Limkeke with the U.S. Marshals told the Atlanta Journal Constitution, there's been absolutely no credible sightings of him since the night he disappeared. Limca said Richard could have fled as far as Oxford, England, or the Caribbean, where he had vacationed before. President in Tosin, Saudi Arabia. Well, that's a good call. He lived there. But basically he's saying,

we have no idea where this guy is. He could be anywhere. Richard was indicted for murder in June 2019, while he was still on the run. So we just talked about, you know, this guy being described as funny, smart engaging, which does make for a good con man. Those are good traits to have if you're a con man.

I think it's also, good to have all of that when you're on the run, right? You're trying to lay low. You don't want to give off the vibe that you're some creepy guy. You want to be disarming. And I think he was probably pretty good at that. I think he probably perfected that craft over years. While Richard was on the run, his brother Robert searched Shirley's house and discovered that Richard had been taken advantage of her for years. Shocker. Her records indicated she loaned and gifted him large sums of money. But then Richard had also stolen from her, forged checks, and pawned some of her belongings.

At the time of her murder, Richard owed her over half a million dollars. Wow. So it's like he'd already stolen almost half a million from these poor people, right, who were supposed to get these settlements. and now we find out that he fleeced his mom out of half a million before brutally killing her. He's the son of the decade. Robert believes Richard manipulated and bullied Shirley into giving him money. And he said in one interview, he did to my mother exactly what he had done to his clients.

Robert theorized that Shirley might have threatened to call the police if Richard was refusing to turn himself in, which caused him to snap and attack her. So, I mean, I think the one thing you have to think about is what's Robert going through? I mean, you know, his brother is this monster who stole money from his clients. But then right before going to prison, he ends up killing their mother. Yeah. And then Robert finds out that he stole a bunch of money from her. He's got to be devastated.

and the house was put up his bond. Yeah. So somebody's probably going to take the house. Yeah. Now, I don't know that Robert cared about all of that as much as he did losing his mother, probably. Yeah.

But he still, you know, had to be just so angry with his brother over at all. Right? You're stealing from our mom when she's done everything for you. Right. And then what? you kill her because she doesn't agree with whatever plan you're about ready to

to implement. You ruin mom's life. You ruined my life. You ruined your ex-wife's life, your kid's lives. And you're also the brother of this murderer. Yeah. And I think that has to be really tough for people. Sure.

Everywhere you go. Everybody's talking about you. Yeah. Whether you're the brother, the sister, the mom, the dad, the son, the daughter. that's a lot to put on somebody. You have this connection with this horrible person. And that's something you have to deal with. It's something you have to live with.

Now, in part two of the Richard Merritt episodes will cover how he was finally arrested. And all the evidence prosecutors presented at his murder trial. But as we wrap this one up, Gibbs, I just don't think there's any doubt about it. Richard Merritt, you know, he was, a narcissist. He just didn't care about anybody but himself. He didn't care about anything other than what he wanted. Yeah. And sadly, that's a trait shared by so many people that we profile on this show. True. Because I think it leads people to do really bad things, right? When you don't care about anybody else or anything else other than yourself or what you want, then in your mind,

is it easier to justify, you know, doing these bad things? Because you're going to get what you want, which is all you care about. Yeah. What I can't understand is living my life that way. And I get it, you know, we don't know what that's like because we're not those type of individuals, we don't have those kind of traits within us. But I can't imagine what that would feel like to not care about other people, what you do to them, what you put them through. Piece of shit. Yeah, I think that's pretty safe to say.

Yeah. And we'll find more out next week in episode two. But that's our part one on Richard Merritt. We got some voicemails, Gibbs. You want to check those out? Yeah, it's here. Hi, Mike. Hi, giving.

My name is Brandy, and I called Last Week and left a voice now. Hopefully you didn't play that one because I was super nervous and super anxious. But I just wanted to call and say that I love the podcast. I'm a Patreon member. Maybe about a month ago, I signed up for Patreon. I'm on episode 384. I've been listening for about five or six weeks now, and I absolutely love it. when I'm done with True Time all the time,

true crime all the time, I'm going to go listen to Unsolve, and then the Patreon episodes. I'm not Team Mike or Team Gibby. I think y'all both compliment each other, and I love the banter between the two of y'all. So keep up the good work, and keep y'all in time picking.

Thank you. All right. Thank you so much for the voicemail. Thanks for being a Patreon member. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it really helps us out. Now, I don't remember we may have played her voice about last week. I really don't remember. I don't think we did, though. Okay.

I don't think so. I don't trust your memory at all. It's pretty stellar. Stellar memory? Yeah. Maybe enter stellar. But what I will say is for listening for five or six weeks, she has gotten through a boatload of episodes. Oh yeah. She's killing it. Yeah, it's really binging. Hey, Mike and Gibby. This is Brittany from Louis, Kentucky, again. I've been listening for a few months. I'm a second time caller. I do have to say that I cheated and skipped ahead to listen to my first voicemail. And I just have to say, Gibby, you saying that I might be called Britney bitch is completely true. That's what everyone at work calls me. And I even have it written down on my work stuff. But anyways, I just have to say that you guys are doing amazing. I am

finishing up the part three of John Wayne Gacy right now. I have to say I actually like it because I've never heard the full case. Most of the true crime shows I listen to don't talk about the most famous cases, I guess because they're so popular and everyone else does them. But anyways, you guys are doing amazing. Also, Gibby, here we say Louisville, not Louisville or in Louisville. But anyways, you guys are doing great. Again, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.

Bye. Hmm. Sounds like somebody else has told you that on multiple occasions. What are you talking about? You're saying. Louisville, Louisville, Louisville, Louisville, Elville, Louisville, Louisville. Louisville. Louisville.

No. But I'm sure I'm going to get an email. Now, Gibby's right. Gibby's right in the way he says it. I am right. But you were right about her. And you are right about a lot of stuff. Can you say that one more?

time. You are right about a lot of stuff. Now, a lot of it is guesswork that just happens to be right. Things you couldn't possibly know for sure. Oh, I know. Can we get that on a shirt or something? Might be a long, it'd be a busy shirt with all of that. It wouldn't be, wouldn't it? But yeah, I'll look into it. All right, buddy. That is it for another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike and Gibby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking. Thank you.