A former Missouri prison nurse who fatally poisoned her husband in order to be with an inmate she was romantically involved with has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Amy L. Murray, 47, accepted an Alford plea this week to second-degree murder in the 2018 death of her husband, 37-year-old Joshua Murray. An Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain innocence while acknowledging prosecutors have enough evidence to convict.
Joshua Murray’s body was discovered in the charred remains of the couple’s Iberia, Missouri, home in December 2018. An autopsy later revealed he had died from ingesting ethylene glycol, commonly found in antifreeze, before the fire — which authorities determined was intentionally set.
According to investigators, Amy Murray was having an affair with Eugene Claypool, an inmate serving a life sentence for second-degree murder at the Jefferson City Correctional Center, where she worked as a nurse. Surveillance and recorded prison phone calls revealed Murray and Claypool discussed her plans to divorce her husband and even marry Claypool.
On the day of the fire, Amy claimed she took her 11-year-old son and their two dogs to McDonald’s. When they returned, she said the house was in flames and filled with smoke, preventing her from going inside. Joshua’s body was later found in the master bedroom.
In recorded calls after the fire, Murray reportedly told Claypool her husband was now “out of the picture” and spoke about hiring a lawyer to help reduce Claypool’s sentence so they could be together.
Initially, Murray faced multiple charges including first-degree murder, arson, tampering with evidence, armed criminal action, first-degree sexual abuse, and three counts of offender abuse for her inappropriate relationship with an inmate.
By entering the plea to a lesser murder charge, Murray avoided trial but admitted the state had sufficient evidence to convict her. She was sentenced to 12 years in state prison.
