Log In


Reset Password

Murder trial yet to be scheduled

Megan Hall will one day have a trial date for the killing of Pottsville jeweler Patrick Murphy, but a new one has yet to be scheduled.

Hall appeared via virtual courtroom last week for a pretrial conference with attorney Devon Jones in New Orleans Criminal District Court. Another pretrial conference is set for Nov. 29.

A Sept. 27 trial date had been vacated due to the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, because jurors were not available. Hall is charged with killing Murphy on Feb. 28, 2019, in New Orleans.

She is in jail at the Orleans Parish Justice Center on $750,000 bond. Hall is charged with second-degree murder, armed robbery and obstruction of justice. A grand jury voted to indict Hall in June 2019.

Police say Hall stabbed Murphy at The Empress Hotel, 137 Ursulines St. in the Treme section of New Orleans, A hotel employee found his body at 11:41 a.m.

Murphy, who had been the owner of Murphy Jewelers, had been visiting the city with his wife after she attended a jewelry convention in Arizona.

If Hall is convicted of the murder charge, she faces a mandatory lifetime prison sentence. An armed robbery conviction is 10 to 99 years in state prison and up to 40 years for the obstruction charge.