A prominent US lawyer has been found guilty of murdering his wife and child.
Alex Murdaugh54, shot his wife Margaret, 52, to death four or five times with a shotgun outside the kennel on their rural Colleton County 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, from a well-known and wealthy family, had carried out the murders after he was caught shoplifting from the family law firm.
The jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding Murdaugh guilty of two counts of murder at the end of the six-week trial.
He will be convicted later and face 30 years in prison for life without parole.
The story is featured in a Netflix documentary series: Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal. In it, residents of their Hampton County hometown question the family’s historically influential influence on local law enforcement.
