A Tennessee woman has been indicted in connection with the stabbing death of 62-year-old jeweler Patrick Murphy in a New Orleans hotel room.
Magen Hall, 25, was charged with armed robbery and obstruction of justice and with the second-degree murder of Murphy in the three-count indictment handed up by an Orleans Parish grand jury.
The defendant’s name also is spelled Megan Hall in some court records.
Murphy was the owner of Murphy Jewelers, which has three stores in eastern Pennsylvania.
A housekeeper discovered Murphy’s body at 11:41 a.m. inside a room registered to Hall at the Empress Hotel at 1317 Ursulines Ave. New Orleans police homicide detective Patrick Guidry testified at a preliminary hearing in March that Murphy had been killed by three stab wounds — one to his neck and two to his abdomen.
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Hall has remained jailed since her March 3 arrest, in lieu of a $750,000 bond set for the murder allegation.
Hall faces a mandatory lifetime prison sentence if convicted of the murder charge, according to a press release from District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office. An armed robbery conviction carries a penalty of 10 to 99 years in state prison, while obstruction of justice in a homicide investigation is punishable by up to 40 years.
