Killer still seeking counsel on perjury charge
Zachery David Murphy, 23, was charged after changing his story at spouse’s murder trial
Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of a violent crime.
A convicted killer accused of perjuring himself at his spouse’s murder trial a year ago has yet to secure defence counsel, court heard Tuesday.
Zachery David Murphy, 23, formerly of Kings College Road in Fredericton, was back on the provincial court docket Tuesday on a charge of perjury.
He appeared in Fredericton by video-conference from federal prison, where he’s serving a life sentence for second-degree murder. He was clad in a blue T-shirt and was sporting a dark goatee.
He was scheduled to elect mode of trial and enter a plea Tuesday to a Jan. 11, 2023, charge of perjury, stemming from his sworn testimony at the first-degree murder trial of his spouse, Angela April Walsh, 25, AKA Ali Morningstar, also formerly of Kings College Road, .
The case was set over in December to Tuesday to give Murphy time to apply for legal aid for representation on the perjury charge.
However, court heard Tuesday that hasn’t happened yet.
Duty counsel Edward Derrah said officials haven’t been able to find a record of his application, so Murphy was requesting an additional adjournment so he can apply.
Judge Mary Jane Richards set the matter over again - this time for five weeks, to March 5 - to give Murphy plenty of time to go through the legal-aid process.
Walsh and Murphy were both charged with first-degree murder in the death of Clark Ernest Hunter Greene, 31, of Fredericton, who was found by a passerby stabbed fatally at the gazebo in Wilmot Park in downtown Fredericton the morning of April 15, 2020.
Murphy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and co-operated with authorities, providing police with a full statement indicating that Walsh had hatched a plan to rob Greene.
He said Walsh lured Greene to the gazebo, and he hid in nearby greenery and then approached the victim from behind and struck him in the head with a metal pipe.
With Greene incapacitated, Walsh retrieved a knife from Greene’s pocket and stabbed him repeatedly in the chest and face, even gouging out his eyes.
Murphy testified to that effect at Walsh’s preliminary inquiry as well.
But when it came time for him to testify at Walsh’s jury trial, he changed his tune, claiming he’d stabbed and killed the victim, and that Walsh had nothing to do with it.
That halted the trial, and after a lengthy recess, the prosecution and defence offered a joint resolution to the case.
Walsh pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, earning her a mandatory life sentence in prison.
She admitted to planning the robbery and to being the one who inflicted the knife blows that killed Greene.
Court of King’s Bench Justice Kathryn Gregory ruled Walsh can’t even apply for any kind of parole until she’s served 13 years of her sentence.
Murphy previously saw his parole eligibility set at 11 years.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.