Lori Milliron, 65, was sentenced Friday in federal court in Denver, Colorado, on a number of charges, including being an accessory in the 2016 slaying of Bianca Rudolph.
The girlfriend of a wealthy and prominent American dentist convicted of murdering his wife on an African safari was sentenced Friday to 17 years in prison and fined $250,000 on a number of charges, including being an accessory to the crime.
Lori Milliron, 65, was sentenced Friday in federal court in Denver, Colorado, after being convicted of being an accessory after the fact in the 2016 slaying of Bianca Rudolph.
Ana Rudolph, daughter of 57-year-old victim Bianca Rudolph, spoke in court Friday and gave an impact statement where she said Milliron had "plotted to eliminate" her mother.
"Lori, you have taken my parents," Rudolph said directly to Milliron, but "despite everything you have done you will never take my soul. This might be difficult to understand ... because you don't have one."
Milliron was convicted last year of perjury, being an accessory to a murder after the fact and obstructing a grand jury and was only sentenced last week.
She was charged alongside Lawrence "Larry" Rudolph, a Pittsburgh-based dentist who was convicted last year of fatally shooting his wife while on a 2016 hunting trip in Zambia so he could collect almost $5 million in life insurance.
Milliron’s attorney, John Dill, told CBS News the prison sentence was longer than what is typically dolled out for such charges, calling it "excessive" and vowing to appeal.
Dill also argued that the convictions were merely based on Milliron's perjury charges and do not implicate her in the execution of the crime, according to CBS News.
Milliron spoke in court and insisted she was innocent of the crimes but said she was "sympathetic" to the Rudolph family, CBS News reported.
The prosecution argued that Million had no remorse for her actions.
“Lori Milliron encouraged Lawrence Rudolph to kill his wife for her. She told him to divorce Bianca Rudolph. When he said he couldn’t afford to do that, Milliron responded by helping Rudolph procure propofol – a lethal anesthetic drug that could be used as a poison – before he took the trip where he did what she had wanted: get rid of Bianca,” their motion said, according to CNN.
Judge William J. Martínez argued that the long sentence was deserved because evidence pointed to Milliron "encouraging" the crime, New York Post said.
Larry Rudolph’s sentencing, originally set for last week, has been postponed, according to reports.
The Rudolphs were avid big game hunters.
Bianca Rudolph’s life came to a violent end when she and her husband flew to Kafue National Park in Zambia — the second largest wildlife reserve in the world. Bianca’s goal was to bag a leopard on the trip.
But on the last day of their two-week trip, a gunshot was heard coming from their cabin. Bianca Rudolph was found dead with a gunshot wound to her chest.
According to the criminal complaint, her husband told Zambian police he believed his wife had accidentally shot herself with her 12-gauge shotgun as she was packing up the weapon.
The dentist came under suspicion after a U.S. embassy official said he believed that the “distance between the muzzle of the shotgun and Bianca’s chest…was approximately 6.5 to 8 feet,” according to the criminal complaint.
Prosecutors later said that that the wound to Bianca Rudolph’s heart came from a shot fired from 2 to 3.5 feet away, according to CBS News.
An investigation was launched after a friend of Bianca’s told the FBI she suspected foul play, because Dr. Rudolph was allegedly having an affair with a manager of his dental office outside Pittsburgh, according to the complaint.
According to news reports, Milliron gave him a deadline of one year to leave his wife, or she would leave him.
