Wilmot Park killer’s spouse charged with perjury
Zachery David Murphy, 23, changed story at Angela April Walsh’s murder trial, claiming he stabbed Clark Ernest Hunter Greene in downtown park 19 times in 2020, not her
Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of a violent crime.
The spouse of a woman who admitted to stabbing a man in the face and chest 19 times in April 2020 is facing a charge of perjury, stemming from his altered testimony at her murder trial in January.
Zachery David Murphy, 23, formerly of Fredericton, appeared in Fredericton provincial court by video from a federal prison in Ontario on Tuesday.
He’s serving a life sentence for second-degree murder. He’ll only be eligible to apply for parole after serving 11 years.
Murphy was making his first court appearance Tuesday on a new charge: that he committed perjury Jan. 11 by testifying falsely and solemnly affirming that he stabbed Clark Ernest Hunter Greene.
Murphy and his spouse - Angela April Walsh, 25, AKA Ali Morningstar - were both charged with first-degree murder in Greene’s death.
The 31-year-old’s body was found at the gazebo in Wilmot Park in Fredericton the morning of April 15, 2020. He’d been stabbed 19 times - 12 in the chest, and seven in the face. His eyes were gouged out.
Murphy eventually pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder, and he co-operated with the Crown in its case against Walsh.
He testified at her preliminary inquiry, stating that she had been the driving force behind the crime and noting that she had stabbed Greene repeatedly after Murphy had brained him with a metal pipe to incapacitate him.
But at Walsh’s first-degree murder trial in January, Murphy changed his story, testifying he was the one who stabbed Greene and that Walsh had nothing to do with the murder.
That brought the trial to a halt, and after Crown prosecutor Darlene Blunston conferred with defence lawyer T.J. Burke, Walsh pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
As part of that process, she admitted to an agreed statement of facts indicating she was the one who stabbed Greene over and over again.
Walsh acknowledged she’d hatched a plan to lure Greene to the gazebo to rob him.
She was sentenced to life in prison - the only sentence available for murder - with parole eligibility set at 13 years.
When Judge Cameron Gunn read the perjury charge to him Tuesday morning, the prisoner said he needed time to consult with legal counsel.
“I haven’t talked to any lawyer,” Murphy said, noting he’d need at least a couple of months to do so.
Gunn adjourned the case to Jan. 30 to give him time to retain and consult defence counsel.
The judge said if he planned to get legal aid, he should make an application right away.
Despite her admissions and guilty plea, Walsh has since applied to appeal her conviction for second-degree murder, arguing she should have been convicted of manslaughter instead.
Possible appeal pending
She’s self-represented in her quest for an appeal, and she’s argued she should get a shorter sentence for manslaughter as well.
However, Walsh missed the 30-day deadline to file her notice of appeal, so New Brunswick Court of Appeal Justice Raymond French is currently considering her application for an extension of time.
At a hearing held earlier this month, French noted the hurdle Walsh must clear is to show that her intended appeal has merit.
The provincial attorney general’s office argued during that hearing that Walsh’s admissions and guilty plea make that an impossible legal obstacle to overcome.
In her notice of appeal and at the hearing, but contrary to her signed agreed statement of facts, Walsh said she was a party to the crime because she’d robbed Greene, but it was Murphy who actually committed the murder, as he testified at her trial.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.