On Monday, billionaire dentist and big game hunter Lawrence “Larry” Rudolph was sentenced to life in prison for the 2016 death of his wife.
AP News reports that a Denver judge handed down the life sentence to Lawrence Rudolph, who was also fined more than $15 million for murdering his wife, Bianca Rudolph, while they were on an African safari trip. Prosecutors said the defendant killed the victim in order to cash out on a $4.8 million life insurance payout.
Rudolph previously pleaded not guilty but a federal jury found him guilty in 2022. Although Rudolph claimed that Bianca accidentally shot herself, prosecutors argued that it would have been impossible for her to shoot herself since the bullet that killed her came from 2 to 3.5 feet away, as CrimeOnline previously reported.
Bianca died after a bullet pierced her heart while the couple was packing up while in Zambia, in preparation to return home to the U.S.
Rudolph was also found guilty of mail fraud after he cashed in on the insurance policy.
Rudolph’s mistress, Lori Milliron, 65, was convicted last year of perjury, obstructing a grand jury, and being an accessory after the fact by the same federal jury that found Rudolph guilty. She was the manager of Rudolph’s dental enterprise.
“The murder was the culmination of a lifetime spent seeking domination and control over others through wealth and power,” prosecutors previously said in a court filing.
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According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the couple’s two adult children are seeking restitution from the insurance company for “suffered considerable financial harm,” following Bianca’s death.
Prosecutors pushed for Rudolph to pay $4.9 million to the insurance companies that had released the money to him after the Zambia government initially called Bianca’s death accidental. Prosecutors also want him to forfeit over $4 million in his bank account and his other assets, including two luxuries cars and two homes.
“The truth is that such a fine would serve only to punish and bankrupt the Rudolph children, not Rudolph himself,” the defendant’s attorneys argued. “The adult children are not being punished, nor are they entitled to unjust enrichment from their father’s criminal scheme.”
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[Feature Photo: Bianca and Lawrence Rudolph/Facebook]
