hello this is Dr Grande today's question is can I analyze the case of Richard Merritt just a reminder I'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon I'll put the link to patreon in the description for this video first I'll look at the background of this case move to the timeline of the murder then offer my analysis Richard Vincent Meritt was born in 1974 in the state of Virginia his father Robert Merritt was an officer in the Air Force his mother Shirley Merritt was a real estate agent Richard had a brother named Robert Merritt II who was 9 years older the brothers were not particularly close in part because of that age difference the family moved around quite a bit due to Robert's job in the Air Force in 1987 Richard's father retired from the Air Force and took a job with a defense contractor in Saudi Arabia this was a significant Step Up in pay for the Meritt family things had always been tight financially but now they had more freedom they lived in a large home and had a driver a cook and a person who cleaned the residence the school that Richard attended in Saudi Arabia did not offer High School classes so he moved to Georgia where his older brother Robert lived after graduating from high school Richard went to college where he studied political science in 1993 Richard's father had hard failure and had to quit his high-paying job in Saudi Arabia Richard's parents moved back to the United States and bought a four-bedroom house in ston Mountain Georgia during his time in college Richard met a woman named Janine they eventually became romantically involved Richard earned a law degree from a college in Jackson Mississippi in 1999 he and Janine married at this time she was studying veterinary medicine so both Richard and Janine were on their way to careers as Professionals in 2000 Richard passed the bar exam on the third try he eventually became a civil litigator for a law firm in Georgia in November of that same year Richard's father died Shirley was devastated by this loss in 2003 Richard bought a house in Smyrna Georgia he and his wife had a son in 2004 and a daughter in 2006 in 2010 Richard opened a law practice in Smyrna he worked on personal injury cases and criminal defense during this time Richard and his family lived a life of luxury they went on frequent vacations and had a beautiful house gaining wealth was the reason that Richard became an attorney so he should have been pleased with the outcome unfortunately for Richard he he wanted more and found a new and creative way to make money as an attorney between April of 2014 and February of 2016 Richard had taken over $400,000 from about 15 clients Richard was settling malpractice cases and then putting the settlement money in his pocket in April of 2017 he was arrested for stealing about $70,000 he turned himself in and was released on $2,000 Bond the police investigated and discovered his other theft activity in January of 2018 he was arrested again and faced additional charges by this time he had already lost his license to practice law as Richard was sitting in jail with his bail set at $400,000 Janine filed for divorce and gained custody of their two children Shirley took out a home equity line for $40,000 10% of the bail so she could free her son using a bail bond company Richard lived in her house in ston Mountain Georgia he had lost his marriage his children his house and just about all his money in January of 2019 Richard Merritt pleaded guilty to the theft charges and was sentenced to 15 years in prison the judge gave him two weeks to report to prison in order to get his Affairs in order Richard had to wear an ankle bracelet so that law enforcement could monitor his movements despite facing this long sentence Richard was hopeful that he would only serve about 5 years in prison now moving to the timeline of the murder on February 1 2019 the day that Richard was supposed to surrender to prison he never showed up at 414 p.m. the ankle bracelet stopped transmitting the police went to the last known location of the ankle bracelet a gas station in Cartersville Georgia they found it damaged in a trash can behind the gas station it had been cut off Richard's ankle as this was going on one of Richard's cousins became worried about Shirley the cousin entered Shirley's house the next day February 2 at the bottom of the basement stairwell he found 77-year-old Shirley Merritt dead the cousin notified the police here's what they found during the course of their investigation Shirley had been stabbed in the face and back with a kitchen knife from her kitchen the attack involved so much force the handle had broken the blade was lodged in Shirley's face a 35lb dumbbell was used to bludgeon her in her face the police found it not far from where her body was with blood on it Shirley died from a combination of blunt force injury and stab wounds her 2009 Lexus RX 350 SUV was missing but Richard's vehicle was still at the house investigators believe that Shirley was cooking Richard's last meal before prison when he attacked her with the knife and dumbbell the police could not locate Richard it was like he vanished in thin air the first significant lead in the case arrived in September of 2019 8 months after the murder the police in Nashville Tennessee investigated a motor vehicle break-in the vehicle was a 2009 Lexus RX 350 the license plate did not match the vehicle which led the police to discover that the SUV belonged to Shirley Merritt inside the vehicle the police found various items like receipts to a few different stores and flyers from a bar these items LED them to the Vanderbilt neighborhood of Nashville on September 30 2019 US Marshall spotted Richard entering a thrift shop he was there to buy a light jacket because it was getting colder outside they managed to arrest him with that incident Richard was returned to Georgia where he was charged with malice murder felony murder aggravated assault and possession of a knife while committing a felony for violating his probation Richard was sentenced to another 15 years in prison this was on top of his 15-year sentence for theft at Richard's murder trial he testified in his own defense he admitted to stealing money from clients but denied committing murder here is the story that Richard Merritt offered to explain what happened to his mother not long before he was supposed to report to prison he noticed a series of mysterious occurrences he kept receiving phone calls where the caller would hang up several suspicious Motor Vehicles drove around the culdesac where his mother's house was located and a cartoon had been sent to his mother's house Richard believed that someone was out to get him on February 1 2019 Richard said that two men knocked on the front door of of his mother's house despite all the alleged threats Richard decided to open the door the men produced pistols and demanded entry as they were forcing Richard and his mother down to the basement Shirley was pushed down the steps one of the men bludgeoned her with a dumbbell and the other man stabbed her with a kitchen knife when they were done committing the murder they showed Richard images of his ex-wife and children on a cell phone The Killers told Richard not to say anything about the murder or they would be the next victims Richard decided to follow the Killer's instructions and didn't tell anybody what happened he took his mother's SUV drove to Nashville Tennessee and started a new life on May 24 2023 Richard Merritt was convicted of all charges after the jury deliberated for 90 minutes it's not clear what they were doing for 89 of those minutes Richard was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 5 years at his sentencing he said quote I was raised by two beautiful people and had a beautiful wife and children the world was our oyster and I blew it over the worst drug there is the green money I made a lot of bad choices and decisions unquote now moving to my analysis here are my thoughts in a few areas that stood out to be in this case item number one even though Richard maintains his innocence there is no doubt that he killed a mother his story about the two mysterious Intruders doesn't make any sense he would have people believe that these two men killed his mother and left him alive they didn't steal anything or have any other obvious motive after witnessing the actions of these monsters as Richard called them he decided to run away and start a new life instead of contacting the authorities all this conveniently happened on the day Richard was supposed to report to prison when he was describing the murder on the stand Richard said something like I could not believe what I was saying apparently the jury couldn't believe it either I've watched the closing arguments from many different trials I don't know if I've ever seen one as deficient as the one offered by the state in this case it was absolutely disastrous the prosecutor essentially just said that Richard was guilty it's like she forgot the argument part of her closing argument her performance was so I wondered if she had attended the Richard Merritt School of Law fortunately the jury didn't need a good closing argument to find Richard guilty item number two Richard acted like he was the victim when he testified on the stand he talked about how his own stealing Behavior cost him everything but then focused on the surprising homicidal attack as if he had nothing to do with it he tried to convince the jury that people had been conspiring against him Richard did not really really express any emotions even when describing how The non-existent Intruders murdered his mother he offered a high level of detail answered questions in a matter OFA Manner and was precise But ultimately his testimony was thoroughly unconvincing if Richard had any Talent as a lawyer it was not on display during his testimony item number three after the murder documents were found which supported the theory that Shirley had been taken advantage of by Richard his mother had given him money he had borrowed her money and allegedly he had taken her money in addition to the home equity line to bail out her son Shirley had pawned some of her belongings Richard owed his mother over $500,000 there was a pattern of Richard having money problems for example when he was testifying on the stand he mentioned how when he was first arrested his bond was set set at $2,000 instead of Simply paying it he went to a bail bond company and paid them $200 it's common for these companies to charge 10% of the bond there are a lot of people who don't have $2,000 sitting around but Richard was an attorney with his own practice in addition he had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients where did it all go it sounds like he was living a lifestyle positioned well above his means item number four during the8 months when Richard lived his new life in Nashville Tennessee he used the Alias Mick Malvo he engaged in online dating met a new girlfriend and found a job at a bar on his fake driver's license he made himself 6 years younger there's the sense that Richard really didn't have any long-term plan but he was not going to let being wanted for murder slow down his social life after he was returned to Georgia his lover did not want anything to do with him mostly because of the murder part but Richard was not willing to give up on his dream he sent his lover postcards and tried to call her item number five what do I think happened in this case this is just a theory my opinion Richard was impulsive irresponsible grandiose self-centered materialistic deceptive believed himself to be special had a sense of entitlement and loved being the center of attention he had success as an attorney but he desired even more money Richard started stealing from his clients with no concern for long-term consequences he was focused on living in the moment when his behavior caught up with him his mother was the only one who stood by him Richard extracted everything he could from his mother in his mind she was simply a source of money he did not have any affection for her when incarceration time arrived Richard was having second thoughts 15 years in prison didn't sound as fun as it initially sounded even the 5 years that he thought he would serve was not appealing he and his mother became involved in an argument about this topic and he killed her there really wasn't any type of plan if Richard had planned this he would not have waited until the day he was supposed to report to prison this was an impulsive crime which was not based on shame it's not like he killed his mother because he was ashamed of his behavior and did not want her to see it if having shame was a crime Richard would be found not guilty of that offense now moving to my final thoughts Richard Merritt was an atypical offender as far as committing matricide for example he was not psychotic he had the ability to become a lawyer barely and for a while appeared to be successful he only resorted to murder after he had lost everything I think the lesson learned in this case is how it's critical to watch out for those who are recklessly hedonistic and who have no objection to extreme violations of trust those are my thoughts on the case of Richard Merritt please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching
