Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced South Carolina attorney who killed his wife and child, was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
The jury deliberated for less than three hours earlier Thursday finding him guilty of shooting to death his wife, Margaret, 52, with a shotgun outside the kennel on their rural Colleton County South Carolina property on June 7, 2021.
On the same day, he shot his 22-year-old son Paul with a shotgun twice.
Prosecutors had said the lawyer carried out the murders in an attempt to distract from the fact that he had stolen millions of dollars from the family business and clients to fuel his drug addiction.
During the trial, the jury heard more than 75 witnesses and displayed nearly 800 pieces of evidence.
The court was told of the clients, friends and family he had cheated on, as well as his failed attempt to fake his own death as part of an insurance fraud.
The Murdaugh family appeared in a popular Netflix docuseries – Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal – detailing a number of controversies connected to them.
Prior to his murder charge, he was in jail awaiting trial on about 100 other charges, ranging from fraud to tax evasion.
In the ruling, the judge said, “You’ve gone from attorney to witness, and now you have the opportunity to make your final appeal as a former attorney.”
Murdaugh, as he did throughout the trial, maintained his innocence, saying he would “never under any circumstances” harm his wife and child.
Alex Murdaugh in the same courthouse where his father and grandfather worked as prosecutors
To know more:
The trial of the lawyer found guilty of the murder of his wife and child reopens the investigation into other deaths
Two murders, a suicide plot and the mystery of the death of a housekeeper: the questions that revolve around Murdaugh
The judge said, “it might not have been you, it might be the monster you become when you take… opioids.”
Creighton Waters, the prosecutor, said: “The depravity, the callousness, the selfishness of these crimes are astounding.
“The lack of remorse and the nonchalant way he’s, including here, sitting right over there in this witness stand – Your Honor, a man like that, a man like this man, should never be allowed to be among the free , the law – honest citizens”.
A family photo of Buster, Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh shown to the court during the trial. photo: AP
The Murdaugh family has been a part of the state’s legal scene for more than a century, with his brother running the firm that was founded more than 100 years ago.
Murdaugh was convicted in the same courtroom where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather tried cases as an elected prosecutor for more than 80 years.
A portrait of his grandfather that hung at the rear of the building has been removed.
