On Friday, June 23, the girlfriend of an American dentist and game hunter found guilty of murdering his wife on an African safari in Zambia was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Lori Milliron, Lawrence Rudolph’s girlfriend, was tried with him in July 2022.
Bianca Rudolph was slain in 2016 while on a hunting expedition in Zambia with her husband, Lawrence Rudolph. Federal prosecutors said in court records that she was killed by a shotgun blast at their hunting cabin before daybreak while packing to return to Phoenix.
Rudolph maintained his innocence, claiming that the revolver discharged unintentionally.
According to court documents, Rudolph’s sentencing was scheduled for earlier this week but has been postponed. Rudolph was found guilty by a federal jury of murdering Bianca Rudolph and scamming several life insurance companies.
The girlfriend of an American dentist who reportedly murdered his wife in Zambia so that he could marry her has been sentenced to 17 years in jail.
According to the Department of Justice, the jury found her guilty of being an accessory after the fact to murder, obstruction of justice, and two counts of perjury based on her evidence before a grand jury.
According to federal judge William J. Martinez’s sentencing order, she was sentenced to 17 years in prison and fined $250,000 on Friday, June 23.
Milliron’s motion for non-guideline punishment was dismissed by the judge. Instead, Martinez granted the federal prosecutors’ request for a longer-than-usual sentence. Federal prosecutors said in their motion that “Even now, Milliron has expressed no remorse.”
“Lori Milliron persuaded Lawrence Rudolph to murder his wife in her honor.” He was told to divorce Bianca Rudolph. When he replied he couldn’t afford it, Milliron responded by assisting Rudolph in obtaining propofol, a fatal anesthetic medicine that may be used as a poison, before he went on the trip where he did what she had wanted: get rid of Bianca,” their motion read.
According to Million’s attorney, John Dill, they intend to appeal both the sentence and the jury’s verdict.
“We believe the sentence is excessive and bears no reasonable relationship to the two counts of perjury before a grand jury that formed the basis of the charges of obstruction and accessory after the fact,” Dill said.
“Her answers before the grand jury were not false.” (…) Ms. Milliron had no involvement in Bianca Rudolph’s murder, and she sympathizes with the Rudolph family as victims of that tragedy.”
Although the murder occurred in Africa, Milliron and Rudolph were tried in Denver, Colorado, where the insurance firms are based.
Rudolph claims in court that she accidently discharged the gun.
“I did not murder my wife.” I couldn’t possibly murder my wife. “I would not murder my wife,” Rudolph said in his own defense during his trial.
However, federal prosecutors classified it as a planned crime. Prosecutors claimed Rudolph murdered his wife of 30 years in order to collect the insurance money and be with his girlfriend, Milliron. Following her death six years ago, Rudolph cashed in more than $4.8 million in life insurance benefits.
An investigating FBI agent claimed in an affidavit that Zambian law enforcement decided the shooting was an unintentional discharge. After a friend of Bianca Rudolph contacted authorities and stated she suspected foul play, American investigators reopened the investigation.
