LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Thirty years after her husband’s homicide, Margaret Rudin doesn’t know who killed him, her attorneys stated, including a fingerprint could possibly be the important thing to discovering out who did.
In 2001, a Clark County jury convicted Margaret Rudin, 81 — who reporters on the time dubbed “The Black Widow” — for the homicide of her husband Ron Rudin. In 2022, a federal choose vacated her conviction, citing poor legal professional illustration and potential different suspects. The state and the Clark County District Lawyer’s Workplace declined to retry Rudin.
In Might, Margaret Rudin filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit in opposition to the state for the greater than 8,000 days she sat in jail. Newly filed courtroom paperwork lay out different theories for who killed Ron Rudin.
“If Margaret Rudin didn’t kill her husband who did?” 8 Information Now Investigator David Charns requested Margaret Rudin’s attorneys, Adam Breeden and Corrine Murphy.
Margaret Rudin seems in courtroom throughout her 10-week homicide trial in 2001. (KLAS)
“That’s a great question — and Margaret doesn’t know,” Breeden stated.
The Rudins married in 1987 after assembly in church. It was the fifth marriage for each. Ron Rudin, an actual property developer, was value an estimated $8-$11 million on the time of his demise. A number of folks, together with Margaret, have been listed as beneficiaries of his belief.
Ron Rudin disappeared in December 1994 as Margaret was getting ready to open an vintage retailer in a strip mall her husband owned steps from their dwelling close to Charleston and Decatur boulevards.
A grand jury indicted Margaret Rudin in 1997. She then went on the run till 1999 when police arrested her in Massachusetts. Her trial lasted 10 weeks in 2001.
“We kind of go on our day to day and we don’t think about it, but really for 30 years this murder case has been hanging over her,” Murphy stated.
“Has anyone apologized?” Charns requested.
“No one,” Breeden stated.
A photograph of Ron Rudin earlier than his demise. A gaggle of fishermen discovered his charred stays close to Nelson’s Touchdown in January 1995. (KLAS)
The jury agreed with prosecutors that Margaret Rudin shot Ron Rudin of their dwelling, positioned his physique in an vintage trunk, after which set it on fireplace close to Nelson’s Touchdown — a fishing spot on the Colorado River about an hour south of the Las Vegas valley.
No forensic proof nor any witnesses ever tied Margaret Rudin to Ron Rudin’s demise, paperwork stated. The federal choose who overturned her conviction wrote there was no proof linking Rudin to the homicide weapon, Ron Rudin’s deserted automotive, or the suspected crime scene. He additionally stated Margaret Rudin’s protection legal professional, Michael Amador, who has since died, didn’t do sufficient to defend her and was extra all for movie star.
“How do you convict someone, or how do you ever try someone when there’s literally nothing, it’s just maybe?” Charns requested the attorneys.
“All the facts you are laying out, I think you perhaps have just done a better opening statement than her own attorney did at the time,” Murphy stated.
Margaret Rudin’s attorneys suspect these footprints from inside Ron Rudin’s automotive present a person, or a number of males, killed Ron Rudin. (KLAS)
Margaret Rudin spent 8,187 days in jail.
Since Margaret Rudin’s attorneys filed their wrongful conviction lawsuit, the 8 Information Now Investigators have poured by a whole lot of pages of grand jury proof, crime scene pictures, witness statements and different paperwork from the trial.
Images the 8 Information Now Investigators obtained present the within of the Rudin dwelling after Rudin’s demise. After Margaret Rudin reported her husband lacking, police searched it and located nothing suspicious.
Detectives later honed in on small, crimson spots in a bed room – some examined optimistic for mind tissue.
A earlier spouse of Ron Rudin’s had killed herself within the room within the mid-Nineteen Seventies, paperwork stated. In an interview with the 8 Information Now Investigators in 2022, Margaret Rudin stated Ron Rudin murdered that girl. In courtroom paperwork, Margaret Rudin’s attorneys stated police mistakenly thought that the lady’s blood was Ron Rudin’s. Her demise was formally dominated a suicide.
Margaret Rudin’s attorneys need this fingerprint examined. They consider it might reveal who killed Ron Rudin. It isn’t clear if police tried to match the print within the Nineties or if Metro police plan to retest it. (KLAS)
Testimony additionally targeted on the shortage of the quantity of blood that might occur if a human is shot within the head, however different witnesses implied Margaret Rudin was performing suspiciously, had her dwelling cleaned and tried to create alibis.
“I think it tells you something about the quality of the evidence or the lack of quality of evidence that they ever had against Ms. Rudin because if this were a good case, the state would have elected to re-try her and do justice,” Breeden stated.
Her attorneys additionally stated Margaret Rudin wouldn’t have been capable of transfer Ron Rudin’s 200-pound physique and put it in a chest on her personal. Additionally they stated although Margaret Rudin had bought an analogous chest, hers was a lot smaller than the one which contained her husband’s physique.
Within the days after Ron Rudin’s disappearance, police discovered his automotive parked exterior the Loopy Horse Too strip membership. The car was lined in mud just like the panorama in Nelson’s Touchdown. Contained in the automotive, somebody or some folks left giant footprints.
Police discovered the homicide weapon in Lake Mead after Ron Rudin’s demise. (KLAS)
Police additionally positioned a fingerprint contained in the automotive, which didn’t belong to Margaret Rudin, her attorneys stated, including it’s their perception it was by no means examined or, if it was, by no means matched with an individual in against the law database on the time.
“I think the evidence points to multiple male adult suspects who had some tie to organized crime, and I say this because of the fingerprint and footprint evidence that was found in Ron Rudin’s car,” Breeden stated.
A 2019 Nevada legislation permits an individual in Margaret Rudin’s scenario to obtain as much as $100,000 per 12 months of incarceration plus cheap housing prices ought to a choose agree together with her argument. The proceedings wouldn’t embody a jury however reasonably testimony relayed to the choose straight.
Whereas Margaret Rudin didn’t testify in her protection in 2001, she’s going to testify this time.
Metro police discovered blood spots, like this one on a bed room ceiling, within the Rudin dwelling, suspecting it got here from Ron Rudin. They by no means discovered giant quantities of blood, which Rudin’s attorneys stated would accompany a homicide. (KLAS)
“The No. 1 witness will be Margaret Rudin and she’s excited I think to be able to testify and tell her story,” Murphy stated.
“She has only maintained her innocence from Day 1, which is what an innocent person would do,” Breeden stated.
A choose might schedule future courtroom dates throughout a quick listening to later this month.
Clark County District Courtroom Choose Mary Kay Holthus dismissed Rudin’s prison case in December, which means her homicide cost and conviction are vacated. The state didn’t admit her innocence.
In an unique interview with the 8 Information Now Investigators, LVMPD Sheriff Kevin McMahill stated he didn’t assume Margaret Rudin was harmless. A spokesperson for the division declined to touch upon whether it is taking any motion in its investigation. Rudin’s attorneys haven’t stated in the event that they plan to sue the division.
