The woman accused of murdering Pottsville businessman Patrick Murphy back in 2019 is now facing another serious charge.
According to inmate and court records, Magen Hall has been charged with Sexual Battery that allegedly occurred recently at Orleans Parish Justice Center. Hall has been an inmate at OPJC for a little more than 3 years, awaiting trial on a second-degree murder and robbery charge in the killing of Murphy.
Murphy, according to police, was stabbed to death in a New Orleans motel room in late-February 2019. He’d allegedly gone to that motel room with Hall, who’s been previously convicted of prostitution charges.
Hall is scheduled to finally go on trial for that alleged crime next month.
Pat Murphy’s Alleged Killer Magen Hall Charged with Sexual Battery
Records show that Hall appeared via video conference before a Magistrate Court judge on Saturday to face a single charge of Sexual Battery.
The judge presiding over the hearing set bond at $15,000 and scheduled a Rule to Show Cause hearing for May 11 at 3 p.m. (Central) and a Progress Report hearing for June 21 at 10 a.m. (Central).
Louisiana law sets the maximum prison sentence for Sexual Battery at 10 years. The state defines Sexual Battery as “the intentional touching of the anus or genitals of the victim by the offender using any instrumentality or any part of the body of the offender, directly or through clothing, or the touching of the anus or genitals of the offender by the victim using any instrumentality or any part of the body of the victim, directly or through clothing.”
Hall is already facing a mandatory life sentence if she’s convicted on a second-degree murder charge in Murphy’s death.
Most recently, COVID and some weather events in Louisiana have delayed the start of that trial. Hall’s been in prison long enough to have somehow appeared in a Netflix series in 2021, Jailbirds: New Orleans. (READ: Pat Murphy’s Accused Killer Now Starring in New Netflix Series)
She appeared on camera quite a bit in that series but kept talk of the case and that night to a minimum.
Hall was just in court on March 9 on a matter related to the murder case. Records show she appeared in court with her attorney, John Fuller, for a pre-trial conference. The April 18 trial date did not change. Another pre-trial conference is scheduled for March 16.
Attempts to contact Hall’s attorney or anyone with the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office, as they’ve been for years, were unsuccessful.