Idaho jury acquits defendant after rare alternative perpetrator murder defense

A south-central Idaho man waited five years for his murder trial and was acquitted Wednesday of his wife’s shooting death after his lawyers mounted a successful defense that the real killer was an acquaintance with a history of theft and drug convictions.

Jurors found Jim Lee Murphy, 37, of Declo, not guilty of first-degree murder following deliberations that lasted about seven hours. Murphy had been jailed since March 2021 when he was arrested on suspicion of killing his wife, Whitney Murphy, at their rural home in 2014 to collect life insurance money.

But his attorneys with the Idaho State Public Defender’s Office said Cassia County prosecutors and police — assisted by the FBI — have long had the wrong man. The 12-member jury sided with the defense and set Murphy free.

“He’s understandably very relieved not to be facing life in (prison), but he’s also anxious to find out what’s going to be next,” Doug Nelson, Murphy’s lead attorney, said in a phone interview with the Idaho Statesman. “He’s always been concerned about getting justice for Whitney, and that’s part of the reason why we went after the alternate perpetrator — to show the world it probably was somebody else who did this, and maybe they’ll do something about it.”

The day after a jury declined to convict Murphy, Cassia County Prosecutor McCord Larsen disputed that the man the defense identified as the alternate perpetrator had anything to do with Whitney Murphy’s death.

”He knew Whitney, respected her, and thought of her as a kind and caring person,” Larsen said in a written statement.

Criminal defenses that meet the legal threshold to argue an alternative perpetrator was responsible are extremely uncommon in the state, legal experts told the Statesman. For such an approach to then result in an acquittal is even rarer after an Idaho Supreme Court decision in 2009 set the legal precedent for using the pathway as a defense.

“I’ve never seen it advance to trial,” Edwina Elcox, a criminal defense attorney in Boise, said in a phone interview. “This is a really high standard, not just a wish and a prayer that it’s somebody else. You can’t just generally shoot an arrow in the dark and hope it lands.”

In Idaho, the defense strategy in a homicide case requires a judge to allow the claim to be made to jurors. To overcome that admissibility burden, attorneys have to reasonably show with evidence that not only could someone else have committed the crime, but also it was a specific person or people who did.

“The purpose for court approval, at least to satisfy the judge that there is credible evidence that can be used to flesh out that defense, is so the argument is not made in general terms,” added Keith Roark, a longtime Idaho capital defense attorney. He told the Statesman that he could not recall ever hearing of a judge granting the defense in his nearly 50 years of practicing law.

Last year, the tactic was attempted in the Moscow college student murder case against Bryan Kohberger in a last-ditch effort by his defense attorneys when they tried to argue as many as four other individuals could have been responsible for the quadruple homicide. The judge in the case ruled against the move just ahead of trial.

“There is no compelling evidence that any of them had a motive to kill the victims — much less physically harm them — or a means to do so. Further, there is no evidence connecting them to the crime scene,” wrote Judge Steven Hippler of Idaho’s 4th Judicial District.

That decision came a month before jurors were set to be selected for the high-profile capital murder trial. Instead, Kohberger decided to pursue a plea deal to avoid the death penalty. He accepted four consecutive life sentences in prison with no chance of parole.

Alternate perpetrator knew the area

In Murphy’s murder case, his public defense team argued it was their neighbor’s younger brother who killed his 26-year-old wife in an apparent burglary by likely shooting her with Murphy’s short-barreled tactical shotgun. The weapon kept in the Murphys’ home just east of Declo on a large farm property near the Raft River area was never recovered by police after Whitney Murphy’s death in October 2014.

Nobody else was found inside the Murphys’ home when police arrived. After Jim Murphy returned almost a half hour later, he had no trace of blood on himself, his clothes or his pickup truck, the defense and the prosecution agreed in legal filings.

Through the police investigation, Murphy maintained his innocence, always stating that he had nothing to do with his wife’s killing.

“When Jim told me he didn’t do it, I believed him,” Nelson said. “We did our own investigation and I asked, ‘Who do you think did?’ And he had good leads.”

Idaho’s recent transition from individual county public defender’s offices to a statewide system provided the resources needed for him to fully scrutinize his client’s case with a full-time investigator, he added.

The alleged perpetrator used to live in the Murphys’ home before they moved in, and also at the neighboring home with his brother and his brother’s fiancée, which sits about 40 feet away on the same property, according to court records. As a result, the man, who was 19 years old at the time of Whitney Murphy’s death, possessed unique knowledge of the homes and the location of the bedroom where she was killed, the defense argued.

In addition, the man they pointed to has a criminal history that includes convictions for drug use and also a count of felony burglary, Idaho court records showed. He also was suspected in a nearby burglary in Burley to fund his addiction in the weeks before Whitney Murphy’s death, as well as another years later at a home in Eugene, Oregon, in 2021, the defense said.

Larsen reiterated that the named alternative perpetrator had nothing to do with it. The man was fully investigated by the Cassia County Sheriff’s Office and FBI, and Larsen also personally interviewed him in preparation for Jim Murphy’s trial, he said.

“There is no credible evidence which indicated this individual had anything to do with the death of Whitney Murphy,” Larsen said. “While this theory may have caused reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury, there is no doubt in any of the law enforcement agencies who investigated this case: (He) was not responsible in any way.”

Husband cleared, but path forward uncertain

Judge Barry Wood of Idaho’s 5th Judicial District granted the defense’s alternative perpetrator theory for trial in a November 2025 order. Given the rarity of such a ruling, it suggested that not only did Murphy’s attorneys meet the legal standard to argue the defense to jurors, but also that it had a high chance of convincing them to acquit, Roark said.

“So that’s at least some indication, if the motion and particular defense is granted, you would assume some likelihood of success,” he said.

In his 20-page decision authorizing the legal defense for Murphy, Wood wrote that two of the alternative perpetrator’s former girlfriends previously told police that he became violent when under the influence of drugs. One of the women also told investigators that she could not say for certain whether he was with her the night of Whitney Murphy’s death to corroborate his alibi.

Police had earlier ruled out the man as a possible suspect because he was thought to have been jailed at the time of the homicide. But it was later learned that was not accurate, Wood wrote.

The man’s other ex-girlfriend testified during trial and said at one point in late 2014 she witnessed the man with a shotgun similar to the one that disappeared from the Murphys’ home. She also testified that the man had described details to her of the crime scene, which police reported that a member of the public could not have known.

Whitney Murphy was shot three times, including in the back of the head at point-blank range, according to court records that referenced her autopsy report. Empty shotgun shell casings were found in the home, and the defense and prosecution already agreed the likely murder weapon was the missing shotgun from the home.

Following Jim Murphy’s acquittal Wednesday, it was unclear whether Cassia County may investigate further in pursuit of charges against the man named as the alternative perpetrator. Cassia County Sheriff Jarrod Thompson’s office declined to comment Thursday and directed the Statesman back to Larsen.

In a phone call with the Statesman, Larsen acknowledged that Whitney Murphy’s case obviously remains “a huge deal in my community.” In his follow-up statement by email, he said he respected the jury’s decision and asked the public do the same, even though for some, the case’s outcome may have created disappointment.

Nelson said his client, now cleared by a jury, continues to hope for justice for his wife more than 11 years later.

“It was more than likely this other guy who was the murderer,” Nelson said. “When Jim heard that, he demanded to show the world that not only did he not do it, but this other guy probably did. He’s hoping either federal or state government go after this guy.”

Reporter Alex Brizee contributed.