Kriti Mehrotra
Netflix’s ‘Trial 4’ is an eight-part documentary series that chronicles how Sean Ellis, through a wild set of circumstances, was convicted of the 1993 murder of a Boston Police Detective, who was gunned down outside a Walgreens the same night he was there. He was given a life sentence with no possibility of parole. It took Sean almost 22 years (and three trials) to finally be exonerated.
And his fourth one, which was granted back in 2015, is the subject of this new true-crime series. In ‘Trial 4,’ a lot of people, who were involved in every step of this case, appear on camera to explain how it all went down, and among them is David Murray, Sean’s uncle, and a crucial witness. Let’s find out more about him!
Who Is David Murray?
David Murray is Sean Ellis’ maternal uncle and the man who talked to the investigating officers on the detective’s murder case to implicate his own nephew. The truth is, David was on probation at the time after serving more than a decade for a mass robbery. He told his family that the same officers he was in correspondence with were pressuring him mercilessly and threatening to file a parole violation report against him, which would promptly send him back to jail, unless he “cooperated.”
This basically meant that David was forced to cook up stories, lie, or exaggerate on official records and compromise Sean without his knowledge. We should mention that some articles say that David did what he did not because of pressure but in the hopes of receiving part of the $25,000 reward money that was being offered to informants. So, he did testify for the prosecution. David claimed that Sean told him that when he left Walgreens, Terry Patterson, the man who had driven him, ran up and breathlessly shouted for him to run away into the woods.
Sean complied, following which, when they reached the car, Terry handed him two guns, commanding him to get rid of them, which Sean did. Although, David did maintain that his nephew was innocent as he never pulled the trigger. Because of that last part, David wasn’t summoned to the stands by the prosecutors during Sean’s third and final (convicting) trial.
Where Is David Murray Now?
According to David Murray’s social media accounts, he still resides in Boston, Massachusetts, and is close to Sean and his sister, Sean’s mother, once again. It seems as if they have left the past behind and are now focused on strengthening their internal relationships to build a stronger bond. After all, David wasn’t the only one allegedly used as a pawn by the Boston Police Department detectives in this murder investigation.
And when it all came out, he refused to let his family believe that he would do anything like that on purpose, sharing his side of the story to anyone who would hear it. According to The Boston Globe, several jurors in Sean’s first and second trial told reporters that it was David Murray’s testimony and protests of Sean’s innocence that compelled them to question the reality.
Consequently, at the pre-trial conference for the third one, in late 1995, when a judge asked the prosecutor if she would use David as a witness once again, she responded negatively. Then she said, “If you ask David Murray what he had for breakfast, he’ll say, ‘Cheerios, and Sean Ellis did not kill the officer!'” Despite all these rare events, David currently seems to be on the right track and happy with his life.
Read More: Where Is Trial 4’s Sean Ellis Now?
