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Detective: Jeweler Patrick Murphy was stabbed three times in New Orleans hotel room

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A New Orleans detective testified in an Orleans Parish magistrate court Thursday that Schuylkill County jeweler Patrick Murphy was stabbed three times in his hotel room near the French Quarter days before Mardi Gras.

After hearing the detective’s testimony, Magistrate Commissioner Jonathan Friedman determined that probable cause existed to uphold second-degree murder charges against Magen Hall, the 25-year-old woman accused of killing the prominent businessman on Feb. 28, according to The New Orleans Advocate.

Friedman also denied Hall’s requests to lower her bail, which had been set at $750,000, but said her attorney could file a motion to request a bail reduction at a later time, The Advocate reported. If convicted of second-degree murder, Hall could face a life sentence without parole.

No details on a possible motive were revealed during the hearing.

A detective testified Thursday that there were no signs Murphy was forced into the hotel and surveillance video did not show any kind of strained interaction between the two, The Advocate reported.

Murphy, 62, owned the Murphy Jewelers chain — which has locations in Pottsville, Hamburg and the Promenade Shops in Upper Saucon Township — and was one of the most well-known and well-liked businessmen in Schuylkill County.

According to published reports, Murphy had been at a jewelry convention in Arizona and then he and his wife went to New Orleans on vacation.

At 2:10 a.m. on Feb. 28, Murphy and Hall checked into the $39-a-night Empress Hotel, which is not far from the French Quarter where thousands of visitors were preparing for Mardi Gras festivities over the weekend.

Almost 10 hours later, hotel employees found Murphy’s body in the room and Hall was gone.

Police described his death as “homicide by cutting,” and obtained an arrest warrant for Hall, who surrendered three days later.

At Thursday’s hearing, Detective Patrick Guidry testified Murphy was stabbed three times, once in the neck and twice in the abdomen, The Advocate reported.

Detectives had previously said in court records that hotel guests said they heard an argument coming from Murphy’s room and a “struggle” around 3:30 a.m. that lasted about two minutes.

The guests also heard a female yelling “get in the bathroom,” according to court records.

A short time later, “the female suspect was observed exiting the hotel room alone and briskly walking out the front door of the Empress Hotel,” court records say.

Hall’s attorney John Fuller argued that charges should be reduced to manslaughter because there appeared to be some type of struggle in the room that night, The Advocate reported.

“It’s clear that my client did not go to the hotel with any intent whatsoever to harm the deceased in this case,” Fuller said, according to The Advocate. “The gentleman received no wounds to his back, whatsoever. There was a struggle.”

Assistant District Attorney Inga Petrovich responded that “there were three stab wounds,” The Advocate reported. “I don’t know what gets more specific intent to kill than that.”

Petrovich added that Hall “exited by herself, leaving the victim to die in a hotel room,” The Advocate reported.

Hall, of Mumford, Tenn., has numerous prior convictions for prostitution in Louisiana, Texas and Tennessee, court records show. In those court documents, her first name has been spelled differently, but on Thursday her attorney clarified that the correct spelling is Magen, The Advocate reported.

At Thursday’s hearing, Fuller, her attorney, questioned Guidry if police recovered any evidence “consistent with typical adult relations,” The Advocate reported, a line of questioning that raised an objection from the prosecutor that Friedman sustained.

Fuller had previously said that “there is definitely more to the story than what’s confined to the four corners of the application for an arrest warrant.”