Georgia Supreme Court upholds conviction for attorney who brutally murdered his mother with dumbbell

Written by: A. Smith

Published November 5, 2025 @ 9:38 AM ET

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. – The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the murder conviction of former metro Atlanta attorney Richard Merritt, rejecting his appeal and affirming a life sentence for the brutal 2019 killing of his mother, 77-year-old Shirley Merritt.

Once a respected lawyer, Merritt’s downfall began when he was convicted in Cobb County of stealing more than $450,000 from 17 of his own clients—many of them elderly—by pocketing their personal injury settlements. He was ordered to report to jail on Feb. 1, 2019, to begin serving a 15-year sentence for theft, forgery, and elder exploitation.

Instead, on the day he was supposed to turn himself in, Merritt brutally murdered his mother inside her DeKalb County home. Prosecutors said Shirley Merritt had been cooking her son a final spaghetti meal when he stabbed her and beat her with a 35-pound dumbbell. She was found dead at the bottom of her basement stairs with a knife blade protruding from her cheek. The dumbbell was found nearby covered in blood and hair.

After killing her, Merritt cut off his ankle monitor, took her car, and disappeared. Authorities launched a nationwide manhunt that lasted nearly eight months until he was captured in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was living under the alias “Mick Malveaux” and working a new job.

During his 2023 trial, Merritt claimed that two armed men had entered the home and killed his mother in front of him, threatening to harm the rest of his family if he told anyone. Prosecutors pointed out that Merritt never mentioned that story to investigators before trial and instead fled the state, changed his identity, and began a new life.

A DeKalb County jury found Merritt guilty on all counts—malice murder, two counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony. Judge Tangela Barrie sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus five additional years to be served consecutively.

In his appeal, Merritt argued that the evidence was insufficient, that he was unfairly shackled during trial, and that the court made several procedural errors. The Georgia Supreme Court rejected those claims, ruling that the evidence overwhelmingly supported his conviction and that no reversible errors occurred.

Merritt remains in state custody, serving a life sentence for killing his mother just hours before he was due to begin serving time for defrauding his clients.