The Pittsburgh dentist accused of murdering his wife while on safari in Zambia was found guilty of first degree murder in a foreign country and mail fraud.
denvergazette.com
8/1/22
The six-man, six-woman jury did not look at Larry Rudolph as they entered the courtroom Monday, only watching the judge as he read their decision. They began deliberating Friday afternoon, had the weekend off and returned Monday morning to resume deliberations.
Larry Rudolph's two adult children, who did not miss a day of trial, were not in the courtroom for the verdict. Bianca Rudolph's brothers, who were also in the gallery for every minute of the trial, were not there to see Rudolph hear his fate.
Larry Rudolph waved to his mistress, Lori Milliron, as he left the courtroom. Milliron was also on trial. She was found guilty of one count of obstruction, two counts of perjury and one count of accessory after the fact. She was accused of lying to a grand jury in January about her relationship with Larry Rudolph.
The jury heard testimony from Zambians who had been flown in for the trial, including a British-trained coroner, guides from the camp where the couple stayed regularly, blood spatter experts and shooting incident reconstruction analysts.
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One of the most critical pieces of evidence in the case was the gunshot wound, which hit Bianca Rudolph directly in her heart and killed her almost instantly. Coroner Daniel Maswahu testified that he could see injuries to her seventh, eighth and ninth ribs, suggesting that the bullet from the Browning shotgun entered her left chest area from a slightly angled position above her body. Other tests determined that the gun was shot from about a meter away.
This ruled out the possibility of suicide and challenged the defense theory that Bianca Rudolph accidentally dropped the gun as she frantically packed to make it to the airport for the long flight to the U.S.
Still, Dr. Michael Baden, a renowned forensic pathologist, testified for the defense that the autopsy was so sloppy it was impossible to tell the direction of the shotgun pellets.
“We can tell the entry but not the angle,” he told the jury.
He later admitted that he had never done an autopsy in Zambia and had little experience with gunshot wounds.
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Larry Rudolph will be sentenced Feb. 1, 2023.