A Clark County district court in Nevada sentenced Thomas Randolph to 60 years to life in state prison in April 2024.
The 71-year-old was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of murder with a deadly weapon.
Chief Judge Tierra Jones handed down the sentence after a jury found Randolph guilty in his second trial for the same charges.
Prosecution Case and Evidence
Prosecutors argued that Randolph hired handyman Michael Miller to stage a robbery and kill his sixth wife, Sharon Clausse.
They alleged that Randolph then shot and killed Miller.
During opening statements, Clark County prosecutor Christopher Hamner told the jury that Randolph's account did not add up.
"At the end of the day, the defendant’s story doesn’t add up," Hamner said.
On the second day, prosecutors played a 2008 interview Metro police detectives conducted with Randolph shortly after the crime.
In that interview, Randolph was not considered a suspect and did not have legal counsel present when he referred to Miller.
The prosecution also presented video evidence of a taped re-enactment Randolph performed for investigators before his arrest.
In the video, he mimicked gunshot sounds and described finding his wife's body bleeding from the head.
During closing arguments, Hamner summarized the physical evidence and testimony.
"It is really really hard to plan the perfect murder," Hamner told the jury.
"And now that you’ve seen all the evidence, you can see how difficult it was for Mr. Randolph to try to pull this off."
He added that the evidence showed Randolph completely failed.
Reactions and Legal History
After the guilty verdict on all counts, family members of the victim reacted to the decision.
"He is a predator and he is – this is what he does for a living," Colleen Beyer, Clausse’s daughter, told 8 News Now Investigators.
"He doesn’t care about life. I’m very happy, extremely happy, that this is over and done."
A media producer who tracked the case documented the initial investigation leading up to the legal proceedings.
"'The Widower' is actually 12 years in the making," executive producer Liz Cole said.
Dateline NBC producer Dan Slepian was embedded with Las Vegas police in 2008 when Randolph was arrested for murder.
He kept following and filming the case until there was a recent resolution.
Media coverage previously featured Randolph commenting on the state supreme court decision that granted him a new trial.
"I’m just happy as can be because, as I told everybody, I didn’t do this. I didn’t kill Becky.
I didn’t kill Sharon," Randolph said.
"And I think I’m more happy not with the fact that I’m getting a new trial; I’m more happy that the system didn’t let me down like it’s let down so many other people."
The Nevada Supreme Court had overturned his 2017 conviction, ruling that the initial trial judge erred by allowing the jury to hear details about a similar 1986 plot involving the death of his second wife, Becky Gault, in Utah.
Randolph remains incarcerated in a Nevada state prison after the denial of a post-trial motion by his defense counsel seeking dismissal of the charges.
