Man Who Killed His Grandmother To Hasten His Inheritance Gets 45 Years
(CBS) – A Texas man who secretly travelled to Illinois to murder his elderly grandmother in hopes of hastening his inheritance was sentenced to 45 years in prison, Kane County prosecutors say.
Judge Linda Abrahamson on Thursday issued what effectively is a life sentence for Rich A. Schmelzer, 44, of Frisco, Texas. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder in December.
Prosecutors say Schmelzer fatally stabbed his grandmother, 85-year-old Mildred "Dodie" Darrington of East Dundee, in July 2014 as part of a scheme to "expedite his inheritance," according to a news release.
Schmelzer was deeply in debt because of a "lavish lifestyle" that included hiring female escorts, prosecutors say, and the father of four fell years behind in his mortgage. Family members rebuffed his attempts to get loans from them, the news release said.
So, the Texas resident made elaborate plans to tap into his $400,000 share of Darrington's estate by killing his grandmother. He used a rental car hired by a cousin and paid for trip expenses with a prepaid gift card, according to evidence presented at trial. To explain his absence to his wife, Schmelzer said he was at a Dallas area conference.
On July 17, 2014, Schmelzer began the 14-hour, 924-mile drive from Frisco to East Dundee. The trip ended with his stabbing his grandmother in the neck as she was in her bed, prosecutors say.
Schmelzer was arrested a month later and charged with the murder.
"I find it stunning – unnerving – that Mr. Schmelzer was so desperate to continue a lifestyle he couldn't afford that he killed his own grandmother – his mother's mother – to be able to feed his greedy, gluttonous pursuits," Kane County State's Attorney Joe McMahon said in a prepared statement.
McMahon added Schmelzer "had plenty of opportunities to reconsider his deadly scheme. He passed more than 100 exits on his 900-mile, 14-hour journey from Texas. He could have turned back at any of them."
Schmelzer must serve 100 percent of the sentence.
