28 November 2001
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Tycoon had six million motives
Richard Sharp reacts in court as the verdict is read yesterday. He was convicted of first degree murder for shooting his wife Karen last year.
By DENISE LAVOIE in Boston
29nov01
A WEALTHY, cross-dressing American dermatologist murdered his childhood sweetheart wife after 27 years of marriage because he didn't want to pay her $6 million in a divorce settlement.
Yesterday a jury convicted Dr Richard Sharpe of first-degree murder in the shooting death of his wife Karen last year.
Prosecutors said Sharpe's motive for killing his wife was pure greed.
"I submit that there are [six] million motives that Richard Sharpe had for killing Karen," assistant district attorney Robert Weiner had told the court.
"He was infuriated about the money."
Sharpe, 47, closed his eyes and jerked his head slightly as the guilty verdict was read out.
In his defence, Sharpe had admitted the shooting, but said he was not criminally responsible because a long-simmering mental illness, which also drove him to cross-dressing, had pushed him over the edge during the couple's bitter divorce.
Sharpe also argued that he was disoriented by drugs and alcohol when he shot his 44-year-old wife at her home in July, 2000.
The jury began deliberations on Monday. Judge Christine McEvoy had instructed them they could consider lesser charges of second-degree murder or manslaughter.
With his insanity argument rejected, Sharpe will automatically be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Sharpe, who taught at Harvard Medical School, ran a cosmetic hair removal business and a business that developed medical software and lasers.
He used the stock market to parlay his earnings into millions.
The murder case drew national attention for its lurid details.
Photographs of Sharpe wearing slinky dresses and fishnet stockings were published after his arrest.
Defence witnesses, including Sharpe's siblings, testified that he endured years of childhood abuse by his father.
Sharpe told jurors he first began dressing in women's clothing as a teenager as an escape from his painful home life.
He testified that he did not remember much about the night his wife was shot in front of her brother and other witnesses as two of the couple's three children slept inside the house.
"I heard the gun go off," he said.
"I think the noise sort of woke me up a bit. I heard the noise and left."
Prosecutors said Sharpe carefully arranged his actions before the killing so he would appear insane and later faked mental illness to impress psychiatrists and the jury.
Sharpe's lawyer, Joseph Balliro, called the killing and trial "a tragedy for everybody".
"Those three children have lost their mother and now they've lost their father," Mr Balliro said.
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