Guilty Plea in Jeweler’s Stabbing Death: Tennessee Woman Admits to Manslaughter

A Tennessee woman has pleaded guilty in connection with the 2019 stabbing death of 62-year-old jeweler Patrick Murphy in a New Orleans hotel room.

Megan Hall, 28, admitted to manslaughter and other charges, the Reading Eagle reports. She now awaits sentencing.

The plea was entered in New Orleans Criminal Court. The other charges to which she admitted were armed robbery and obstruction of justice.

The charges were part of a plea agreement that allowed Hall to avoid a count of second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence in Louisiana, according to the Eagle.

Murphy was the owner of Murphy Jewelers, which has three stores in eastern Pennsylvania.

New Orleans police homicide detective Patrick Guidry testified at a preliminary hearing in March 2019 that Murphy had been killed by three stab wounds — one to his neck and two to his abdomen.