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Tearful father apologizes for killing daughters' mother

Christopher Murray turned to a full Philadelphia courtroom gallery Tuesday and tearfully attempted the impossible: to apologize for strangling his wife of 18 years, Connie, the mother of their two daughters.

Police say Christopher Murray, 48, confronted his 46-year-old wife, Connie Murray, in Pennypack Park when she went for a jog, then strangled her.
Police say Christopher Murray, 48, confronted his 46-year-old wife, Connie Murray, in Pennypack Park when she went for a jog, then strangled her.Read more

Christopher Murray turned to a full Philadelphia courtroom gallery Tuesday and tearfully attempted the impossible: to apologize for strangling his wife of 18 years, Connie, the mother of their two daughters.

"I am truly sorry for what I have done to all of you," said Murray, 49, body shaking and teardrops running down his face as lawyer Andrea Konow put a hand on his shoulder trying to steady the burly mechanic, who towered over her.

Murray then spotted his 17-year-old daughter and broke down: "I'm sorry, Emily. I love you."

Murray said, "Every day I pray for forgiveness from God and from Connie, my beautiful wife, my first and only true love."

It was the culmination of a mournful hour-long hearing in which Murray pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in a plea deal that puts him in prison for 20 to 40 years. Murray would have faced life without parole had he been convicted of first-degree murder.

None of it, however, explained why Murray killed his wife last August after they argued in their Northeast Philadelphia home about text messages from another woman that she found on his cellphone.

Defense attorney Roger M. Schrading said Murray, the fifth of seven children, had a B average at Father Judge High School, spent four years on active duty in the Navy and another four in the Navy Reserve, worked two jobs, coached his daughters' softball teams, and was involved in their schooling.

"While some will not see past the tragedy," Schrading told Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner, "Christopher Murray is a man who should not be judged by the worst thing he has ever done. He is a good man that did a terrible thing."

Lerner agreed but added that some crimes "eclipse every good thing in that person's life."

"There are no winners in this case," Lerner said. "That expression is trite, but it couldn't be a more accurate description than it is here today."

Polygraph test

Murray was arrested four days after a pedestrian discovered his 46-year-old wife's body Aug. 5 near Holme Crispin Cemetery.

Murray first reported his wife missing, telling police she never returned after she had gone jogging about 9 p.m. on Aug. 4.

Police, however, questioned him on contradictions including a surveillance video that showed Connie Murray talking to the driver of a silver Ford Taurus just like the one Christopher Murray owned.

After Murray took and failed a police polygraph test, he admitted that when his wife went out jogging, he followed her to the park, met with her, and continued arguing.

Murray said his wife, whom a birth defect left with just one complete arm, smacked him and he strangled her, though he said he remembered no details.

'It turned ugly'

"She started getting mad, started getting physical," Murray's statement reads. "I was trying to defend myself, and it turned ugly."

Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore said she was skeptical about Murray's lack of memory and criticized him for misleading police and taking his older daughter out "looking" for her mother.

"What you did was bad enough, but then you involved your daughter," Pescatore said, her voice quivering as she wiped at tears.

The Murrays' younger daughter, Elizabeth, 12, was not in court. Pescatore said the sisters now live with Christopher Murray's brother, Francis.

Connie Murray's younger brother, Kevin McClain, the seventh of seven children, and a childhood friend, Beth Hale, testified emotionally about the void her death created in their lives.

"The silence is so hard to bear, and our hearts are broken," Hale said.