UPDATE: The verdict is in. After approximately 90 minutes of deliberation, the jury has found Richard Merritt guilty on all counts.

The charges were in total six counts: one count of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, and one count of possession of a knife during the commission of a felony.

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A disbarred attorney accused of murdering his own mother took the stand Tuesday and gave a very different version of the story.

Prosecutors say Richard Merritt brutally beat and stabbed his mother to death in 2019 on the same day he was supposed to report to prison for unrelated financial crimes.

At the time, Merritt was living with his mother, 77-year-old Shirley Merritt, in Tucker and was awaiting a 15-year prison sentence.

Shirley Merritt was found dead in her home shortly after her son cut off his ankle monitor and took off.

Merritt took the stand in his own defense on Tuesday and claimed two armed men he didn’t know barged into the home and killed his mother in front of him.

“This monster took this dumbbell and proceeded to bludgeon my mother right in front of me,” Merritt said. “And she stopped moving at this point.”

Merrit said a man with a pistol to his back brought him downstairs, then came back a few minutes later with a kitchen knife and “proceeded to stab my mother repeatedly in front of me.”

Prosecutors fired back, saying Merritt has spent his entire life telling lies to get himself out of trouble. They also questioned why he never reported the two alleged killers to his family or authorities and instead drove to Tennessee and remained on the lam until authorities caught him.

Prosecutors said Merrit settled civil lawsuits without telling his clients and kept the money for himself. He used the money taken from clients, some elderly or filing medical malpractice claims, to buy a Porsche or go on vacation.

Closing arguments were set to begin at 9 a.m. and then the case will be in the hands of the jury.

Merritt’s brother, Robert, recently sat down for an interview with 95.5 WSB’s Veronica Waters.

Robert Merritt said that as jury deliberations in his brother’s trial get underway, he is feeling anxious but also optimistic: “I’ve had a lot of time to process this situation and I’m very hopeful that we’ll get closure and vindication as a family for the loss of my mother.”

Speaking with WSB over Mother’s Day weekend, Robert Merritt said it is an especially hard time to reflect on what happened to his mother, Shirley. “You do a lot of introspective thinking about what could’ve been and what can’t ever be anymore,” Merritt said. “The family dynamic in this case has been tragically shattered.”

Merritt added that he wants his brother to pay for his mother’s murder, without the “freedom to go out and repeat” what he did. “In his case, he needs to stay in prison for the remainder of his life,” Merritt said. “I feel that he is a danger to society and needs to be out of the mix permanently.” Read the full interview here.