Maxwell St. Vincent, originally known as Stuart Sims, is a minor character on How to Get Away with Murder.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Maxwell, whose name was Stuart at the time, was married to Elizabeth Sims and they had a daughter, Eloise. Their relationship was happy enough until Max met Marjorie Trask in Paris and started having an affair with her. They grew so close and so in love that Max decided to murder his first wife, Elizabeth, so that he could marry and run away with Marjorie. He was tried for the murder but found not guilty and a year later created a new identity for him and his daughter before settling in Philadelphia.
In the summer of 2014, Eloise flew to Switzerland to visit her mother's home town. She believed her mother had died in a car accident as that's what her father told her. But she discovered that her mother was murdered and Max was put on trial for it and she realised that he killed her. So she returned home and began plotting how to get revenge on her father for killing her mother, and decided to murder Marjorie and frame it on Max.
Season 1[]
Marjorie St. Vincent is found murdered and Max is charged for it. He hires Annalise Keating as his attorney. The Keating 5, Annalise, Frank and Bonnie met with Max in his home and he explained how he met Marjorie in Paris while shopping for Eloise's 4th birthday. He leads them to the master bedroom where the murder occurred and Annalise says she asked him to preserve the crime scene in case any forensic clues are uncovered later. She instructs the students to look around the room and after a few moments Max asks for a volunteer and Connor steps up. Max pushes him onto the bed and simulates how the prosecution believe the murder happened.
Back at the house, Frank instructs the students to look through the prosecution's murder book of all the evidence they had on Max. Bonnie mentions to Annalise that only two officers were on the supplemental arrest report but Max said there were three at the scene. They agree on sending Wes to retrieve the original report from the police department. He does so successfully and reports back the next day that the murder book states the murder weapon was found by Officer Jake Dorsey but the supplemental reports says it was found by Officer Chad Mullens. In court, when Jake Dorsey is on the stand she questions him about this before saying that Chad Mullens is on leave for drinking on the job and that would explain why the prosecution fabricated who found the murder weapon.
Later, Annalise tells the Keating 5 the next step is to go after the motive following discrediting the weapon. Michaela says the prosecution was going to have Marjorie's best friend testify that the couple were going through a divorce, eliminating Max's inheritance per the prenuptial agreement, giving him a motive to kill. Connor helps with discrediting the witness by enlisting Oliver to hack into her computer. He discovers a toast she wrote at their anniversary party two months prior which clearly went against the idea that Marjorie was unhappy in the marriage because of how positive it was. Following that she has Frank blackmail Max's neighbour into testifying that he saw Max the night of the murder with the help of Asher and Michaela.
After his testimony the prosecution rested and Laurel was tasked with writing testimony preparation questions for Eloise. During her actual testimony she said he lost his first wife Elizabeth Sims in a car accident and there is no way he could have killed Marjorie. During prosecutor Lucinda Blair's cross, she told Eloise that Max cheated on Elizabeth with Marjorie before she died. She presented the death report for Elizabeth Sims and had Eloise read it out, revealing to the court that she died from a neck wound from a hunting knife, not a car accident. After court, Bonnie read out a news article stating that Max was put on trial for his first wife's murder but found not guilty before changing his name and moving away. Annalise confronts Max about this and he comes clean but she doesn't drop the case. She instructs Frank to find out who gave the prosecution the tip about the murder of Elizabeth as they could be a suspect. He finds out that Eloise spent her spring break visiting her mother's home town and discovered how she really died and started plotting her revenge - being the killing of Marjorie and framing her father.
The next day the students and Annalise return to the crime scene and she tells them that they need to prove Max didn't kill Marjorie, even if he killed Elizabeth. Laurel takes note of the hunting apparel on the walls and realises that Max knows how to kill because of his hunting experience. Annalise puts Max on the stand and has him testify to his hunting knowledge and background. She then has Bonnie step up so Max can demonstrate how to painlessly kill an animal and Annalise asks if the painless way he kills an animal is the same way he killed Elizabeth Sims, to which he said yes. The prosecution accused her of attempting to get a mistrial but the judge let her proceed in calling Medical Examiner to the stand. She studied both autopsy reports and came to the conclusion that Marjorie and Elizabeth couldn't have been killed by the same person because Marjorie's killing was messy whilst Elizabeth's was clean. After this Max was found not guilty.
Murders Committed[]
- Elizabeth Sims: Max killed Elizabeth via a "deeply incised wound of the upper neck" resulting in death by blood loss.
See also[]
Murder of Marjorie St. Vincent
Appearances[]
| Season 1 | |||||||||||
| "Pilot" | "It's All Her Fault" | "Smile, or Go to Jail" | "Let's Get to Scooping" | ||||||||
| "We're Not Friends" | "Freakin' Whack-a-Mole" | "He Deserved to Die" | "He Has a Wife" | ||||||||
| "Kill Me, Kill Me, Kill Me" | "Hello Raskolnikov" | "Best Christmas Ever" | "She's a Murderer" | ||||||||
| "Mama's Here Now" | "The Night Lila Died" | "It's All My Fault" |
Gallery[]
Episode Stills[]
Season 1[]
