Cops have launched a nationwide search for 44-year-old Richard Merritt, who pleaded guilty to stealing $500,000 from elderly clients and who they say cut off his ankle bracelet and stabbed his mother to death with a steak knife.
A nationwide manhunt is underway for a Georgia lawyer who police say killed his own mother.
Richard Merritt, 44, was supposed to turn himself in to Cobb County authorities earlier this month to serve a 15-year sentence behind bars after pleading guilty to stealing $500,000 from his elderly clients.
Instead, police say, Merritt cut off his ankle monitor and killed his mother, Shirley, by stabbing her to death with a steak knife in Dekalb County on Feb. 2 before stealing her car and fleeing the area. He's been on the run ever since, according to officials.
Merritt's brother, Robert, urged his sibling to surrender Saturday.
"You need to face the consequences of the criminal behavior that you were sentenced for ... and now you certainly need to be held accountable for the brutal murder of our mother," he told ABC News.
The U.S. Marshals are now offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
"He could be dangerous to anyone because if he killed his own mother what's to stop him from hurting anybody else?" Marshal Frank Lempka, who's leading the manhunt for Merritt, told Inside Edition.
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