'Muffy, He’s Murdering Me': Law Firm Managing Partner Testifies Against Lawyer Accused Of Slitting His Throat

That one lawyer could allegedly do such things to two members of the bar is disturbing.

Andrew Schmuhl

Andrew Schmuhl

Lawyer Andrew Schmuhl stands accused of breaking into the home of Leo S. Fisher, the managing partner of Northern Virginia firm Bean Kinney & Korman, and committing extremely violent acts once inside. Schmuhl has been on trial for the past week in Fairfax County, Virginia.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the case, Schmuhl and his wife, Alecia (who is also an attorney), allegedly plotted revenge against Bean Kinney’s managing partner because Alecia had been fired from the firm. Fisher and his wife, Susan Duncan (who is also a lawyer), were brutally stabbed numerous times, and Duncan was shot in the head. Both were grievously injured with life-threatening wounds, but survived the attacks. Their disturbing testimony has captured the attention of the NoVa bar since Schmuhl’s trial began on May 16. Schmuht has been charged with abduction, aggravated malicious wounding, using a firearm, and burglary.

Fisher first recounted the tale of how Schmuhl allegedly tied his wrists and ankles with plastic zip ties and did the same to his wife. Shortly thereafter, he said, Schmuhl brought Fisher into his home office and ordered him to go through his work email account, desperately searching for an email Schmuhl claimed the law firm partner had sent to a Mexican drug cartel called the Knights Templar to “put a hit on somebody for $370,000.” It was then that Schmuhl began to ask Fisher why he had recently fired an associate from the firm — his wife, Alecia Schmuhl.

Fisher says Schmuhl received cellphone calls throughout the entirety of the ordeal, and his assailant later asked the law firm partner where his stacks of money and gold were located. After Fisher denied having any cash or gold, things took a turn for the worse.

Here’s some of Fisher’s chilling testimony, courtesy of the Washington Post:

Fisher said he thought maybe the man just wanted money, and offered to go to the bank. “I was just sitting there like this,” Fisher testified from the witness stand. “My heart was pounding. I said to him, ‘I may be having a heart attack.’” (Fisher had suffered a heart attack the previous year.) “Next thing I know he knocks me over backwards, puts the pillow over me and he cuts my throat and stabs me.” He said he was stabbed in the left side of the head and in the left shoulder.

Fisher yelled out, “Muffy, he’s murdering me,” using a nickname for his wife, but he said the pillow may have muffled that. He said the man mocked him and said, “What is this, the Muppets?”

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Susan Duncan’s testimony is no less frightening. The Washington Post has the details:

Duncan, sobbing, continued in court: “I saw he had a gun in his hand. I felt the bullet. I fell down on the floor.” She had been grazed by a shot. The man left the bedroom.

“I started crawling across the bed” to reach a phone, Duncan testified through tears. “He jumped on the bed and started stabbing me. So I collapsed and he got off. So I got up and he would jump on me and stab me over and over. And he would get off. This happened three or four times.” Finally, she played dead and the man left the room.

That one lawyer could allegedly do such things to two members of the bar is disturbing.

Schmuhl, who was found with his wife, Alecia, after police stopped them in the highway as they fled from the scene, was seated in the passenger seat wearing only an adult diaper. Schmuhl will be pursuing an involuntary intoxication defense, and his lawyers will claim that the former Army JAG officer was taking 14 prescribed medications for a prior injury that “made him unaware of what he was doing.” Alecia, who faces the same charges, is accused of being the mastermind of the attack, but she is expected to claim in her own defense that Schmuhl was manipulating her. Alecia will stand trial in September.

Do you have any additional information about Alecia and Andrew Schmuhl? We may use it anonymously in an upcoming story here on Above the Law. You can email us, text us at (646) 820-8477, or tweet us @atlblog. Thanks for your assistance.

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McLean home invasion victim says he recognized his attacker quickly [Washington Post]
McLean home invasion victim: Intruder ‘would jump on me and stab me over and over’ [Washington Post]


Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.