A notorious Las Vegas “Black Widow” has had her conviction overturned in the murder of her billionaire husband because her defense attorney did such a poor job in court.
Margaret Rudin’s 2001 conviction in the 1994 murder of real estate developer husband Ron Rudin, 78, was overturned by a Nevada judge on Sunday.
The 78-year-old spent almost 20 years behind bars and was released in 2020 before the conviction was finally overturned over the weekend.
“I’m very, very grateful to God,” Rudin told the Las Vegas Review Journal Monday. “I’ll be 79 at the end of this month, so I’m very, very grateful.”
Rudin’s conviction was overturned Sunday because of her former attorney Michael Amador’s botched and incompetent defense during the 2001 trial.
Amador’s antics during Rudin’s trial became as notorious as his client. He negotiated the media rights to the case story and reportedly attempted to write a book about the case while defending Rudin, was accused of leaking information to tabloids, failed to interview or prepare witnesses before the trial, and delivered delivered a pathetically unprepared performance in court.
“While claims of a serious conflict of interest by Amador were set aside, Rudin was clearly denied effective counsel assistance at the trial due to Amador’s extreme lack of trial preparation and his resulting self-centered, ill-prepared and incompetent representation,” the U.S. District Judge wrote Richard Boulware in the ruling to overturn Rudin’s conviction.
Rudin was convicted in 2001 of the 1994 murder of her 78-year-old husband, Ron Rudin, a real estate developer worth at least $8 million at the time of his death. Ron was found shot in the head in the couple’s bed amid preparations for Margaret’s divorce.
His body was locked in a suitcase, cremated, and dumped in the Mohave Desert.
Margaret Rudin, 78, the notorious Las Vegas murder suspect dubbed the “Black Widow,” was sentenced to life in prison for murder on Sunday after serving 19 years
Rudin was first charged with her husband’s murder in 1997 after police interviewed a handyman who said she hired him to clean a bloodied mattress and carpet at Rudin’s home.
Margaret’s husband disappeared in December 1994 while preparing for a divorce, and a month later his cremated remains were found in the desert in an antique suitcase shown to have been purchased by Margaret.
Police searched the Rudin home and found evidence of blood spatter in the couple’s bedroom and it was determined that Ron had been shot at least four times in the head from his own gun.
Rudin fled Nevada after her indictment and hid in Revere, Massachusetts until she was arrested in 1999.
Margaret Rudin and her husband Ron Rudin in a photo before his assassination. Ron was preparing to divorce his wife when he went missing in 1994
Margaret and Ron Rudin before Ron’s murder. Ron was a real estate developer worth at least $8 million at the time of his death. His burned remains were found to have been shot at four times
Prosecutors argued that Rudin murdered her husband before he could divorce her to keep his multimillion-dollar estate. She was sentenced to life in prison in 2001, with the possibility of parole after 20 years.
She was released on parole in 2020 after nearly 20 years in prison but insisted she was innocent.
“I want to be able to travel freely with a passport if I want to,” Rudin said when she was released from prison, “I want to be able to choose. I want to be able to do all the things I could do before Ron was murdered. And I didn’t do it.’
A federal judge on Sunday granted Rudin a trial warrant – overturning her murder conviction – on the grounds that her 2001 defense attorney, Michael Amador, had provided inefficient assistance during her trial.
Ron’s charred remains were found in the burnt remains of an antique trunk in the Nevada desert (above). The suitcase was proven to have been purchased by Margaret
Margaret Rudin and her defense attorney Michael Amador (left) during her 2001 trial. Rudin’s conviction was overturned because of Amador’s inadequate defense in 2001
Defense attorney Michael Amador (left) had a notoriously poor performance in court during Rudin’s trial in 2001. Meanwhile, he is said to have negotiated media contracts for the history of the process
The notoriously incompetent Michael Amador
Clark County must now decide whether to appeal the verdict or try Rudin again for murder.
“It’s been a long road and I’m very glad the court made the decision because I think it was the right decision,” said Rudin’s new attorney, Greg Mullanax. “It is unfortunate that it came out after she had served her sentence in prison because this has been swirling around in the courts since 2001. It’s still what we were looking for: a new trial and an overturn of the conviction, and that’s what we got. I’m glad a court finally looked at this and saw what happened.
“The trial was a farce,” he added
Rudin was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 20 years. She was released on parole in 2020 after nearly 20 years. Above Rudin at the time of her parole