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Thread: Alex Murdaugh Sentenced to Life in Prison in 2021 SC Slaying of Margaret Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh

  1. #11
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    Lawyer Accused of Murdering Wife and Son Now Faces Fraud and Money Laundering Indictments for Allegedly Ripping Off His Old Law Firm

    By Matt Naham
    Law & Crime

    Disgraced South Carolina lawyer and accused murderer Richard “Alex” Murdaugh now faces an indictment for alleged fraud and money laundering crimes going back to when he was a partner at the law firm Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, and Detrick, P.A. (PMPED).

    A Friday press release from S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson (R) announced indictiments against Murdaugh on “four counts of Obtaining Signature or Property by False Pretenses Value $10,000 or More, two counts of Money Laundering Value $20,000 – $100,000, one count of Money Laundering Value $100,000 or More,” and “two counts of Computer Crime Value More Than $10,000.”

    The offenses allegedly occurred while Murdaugh was still working at the law firm that bore the legal scion's family’s name. According to the indictment, Murdaugh stole more than $120,000 in funds that were meant to be a repayment to his brother for loaning money to the firm earlier in the year.

    “It was common for certain partners of Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, and Detrick, P.A. (PMPED) to loan money to the firm at the beginning of the year to cover operating expenses until sufficient fee revenue was generated. Typically, partners who elected to loan money for this purpose were paid back with interest in April or May,” the indictment said. “MURDAUGH was not a partner known to make such loans, but the PMPED accounting office erroneously wrote out a repayment loan check to MURDAUGH for $121,358.63 that should have gone to MURDAUGH’s brother who did make a loan.”

    “Instead of calling attention to the mistake, MURDAUGH instead went to the accounting office and through false representations had the office cut another check for the same amount and void the original one within the internal accounting system,” documents added. “MURDAUGH then deposited that replacement loan repayment check into his account and converted the funds to his personal use.”

    From there, Murdaugh allegedly laundered the money through online transactions.

    MURDAUGH then deposited that loan repayment second check into his account and converted the funds to his personal use. On or about October 12, 2018, MURDAUGH deposited the original loan repayment check intended for his brother.

    MURDAUGH then engaged in financial transactions to convert the money to personal use, including making online transfers, and writing checks to associates. These transactions exceeded $100,000 in a twelve month period.

    Additional charges relate to Murdaugh’s alleged creation of a bank account “under the name ‘Richard A Murdaugh Sole Prop DBA Forge.'” This account was allegedly used to misappropriate funds under the “illusion that the money was being paid to the legitimate settlement planning company Forge Consulting, LLC”:

    MURDAUGH then caused a check for $91,867.50, which represented the legal fees due in a case to MURDAUGH’s law firm, Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, and Detrick, P.A. (PMPED), to be disbursed from the client trust account to ‘Forge’ as ‘Settlement Proceeds’ rather than following the normal practice of having a trust account check written for fees and deposited to the operating account of MURDAUGH’s law firm, PMPED. MURDAUGH had not informed PMPED he was bypassing paying the fees into the firm as he was required to do, and MURDAUGH did not structure the fees with the legitimate company Forge Consulting, LLC.

    The AG’s office, noting that these felonies are punishable by years to a decade or more of prison time upon conviction, then provided perspective about the scope of Murdaugh’s alleged crimes: “Altogether, through 18 indictments containing 90 charges against Murdaugh, the State Grand Jury has indicted Murdaugh for schemes to defraud victims of $8,789,447.77.”

    https://lawandcrime.com/crime/lawyer...-old-law-firm/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #12
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    Alex Murdaugh hearing erupts in shouting matches over $1M murder evidence in killings of wife, son

    Alex Murdaugh's defense attorney insists state prosecutors are 'trying to hide something'

    By Danielle Wallace
    Fox News

    Alex Murdaugh appeared for a hearing Monday that devolved into a shouting match between defense and state prosecutors over the estimated $1 million worth of murder evidence allegedly tying the disgraced attorney and legal scion to the June 2021 double homicide of his wife and 22-year-old son.

    Murdaugh’s attorney, Dick Harpootlian, and deputy state attorney general Creighton Waters exchanged several fiery wars of words during the hearing at the Colleton County Courthouse, as Murdaugh sat stone-faced while listening.
    At one point, Harpootlian accused prosecution of trying to "hijack" the hearing and withhold evidence.

    "I don’t trust the state to honor the rules! They haven’t so far at this point," Harpootlian said. "I’m sorry if I’m being upset but every time we turn around they’re trying to hide something."

    Meanwhile, Waters pleaded for a gag order to prevent some of the more sensitive evidence from being released to the public amid high pre-trial publicity, estimating that the material linking Murdaugh to the murders of his wife and son following a tight-lipped 13-month investigation is "probably worth over a million dollars."

    "I don’t play fast and loose!" Waters yelled at one point, also denying allegations that the prosecution leaked any murder evidence details to the press.

    He said the Murdaugh’s long spiraling fall from grace is "unprecedented" for South Carolina being that it involves violent crime and corruption on a scale "never seen before." In asking for the protective order, Waters remarked, "If not this case, what case?"

    "The court has an independent responsibility and an obligation to avoid the creation of a carnival-type atmosphere in a case of this nature and I will do all I can to limit that," Judge Clifton Newman responded at one point. "But in this case we have gone from the parties seeking agreement in a gag order a few weeks ago to being at extreme odds at this point, claiming there is a violation of rules."

    Newman granted the prosecution’s request for a gag order, but ordered that search warrants be unsealed and handled over as discovery to the defense.

    Bare-bones indictments say Murdaugh, who dialed 911 himself to report the murders, fatally shot both wife Maggie and son Paul.

    Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/alex-murd...lings-wife-son
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #13
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    Alex Murdaugh waited an hour to call 911 after murdering his wife and son, prosecutors claim

    By Jennifer Smith
    Daily Mail

    Alex Murdaugh waited an hour to phone 911 after shooting his wife and son dead and was caught on camera at the murder scene, according to bombshell new evidence that prosecutors say will seal his guilt.

    Murdaugh is accused of murdering his wife Maggie and son Paul at the family's home in South Carolina last June.

    He is preparing for trial, and is also facing 80 separate charges for allegedly stealing millions of dollars from his own law firm and from the family of his late housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.

    Murdaugh, 52, denies murder. He has claimed that he thinks his cousin, Curtis Eddie Smith, is to blame for shooting Maggie and Paul.

    Smith is the man he is also accused of hiring to shoot him in the back of the head in a failed attempted life insurance scam; Murdaugh wanted to stage his own murder to secure a life insurance payout for his only surviving son, Buster.

    For the first time yesterday in court, prosecutors described evidence that they said nails Murdaugh to the scene of the crime, when it happened.

    They say they have video evidence of him arriving at the property at 8:44 p.m., then was filmed 'firing up his car and leaving' at 9.06pm.

    It took another hour for him to call 911 reporting them dead.

    The prosecution did not clarify yesterday at the hearing if Murdaugh returned to the property to make the call, or if video showed anyone else arriving at the home between 9.06pm and 10pm, when the call was made.

    His attorneys insist he is not guilty of the murders.

    They say it was Curtis Eddie Smith, the distant cousin and would-be hitman.

    They are yet to present any evidence that Smith was at the home on the night of the murders, but they say the fact that he failed a polygraph test about the killings implicates him.

    Murdaugh's defense has proposed the theory that Smith killed Maggie and Paul in a panic after discovering an illicit affair between Maggie and an unnamed groundskeeper.

    In court filings on Wednesday, prosecutors said that theory was not only untrue but 'salacious' and 'insulting' to his late wife's memory.

    They content that Murdaugh killed his wife and son after swindling millions of dollars and all but losing the family fortune.

    The Murdaugh family had been a pillar of the community in Islandton - many previous generations of men had served in local politics and as prosecutors.

    Before she was murdered, Maggie had been left red-faced after writing checks for charity luncheons that later bounced.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...c44affec3019d8
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  4. #14
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    AG: State will not seek death penalty for Alex Murdaugh

    Chase Laudenslager

    COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCBD) – Attorney General Alan Wilson on Tuesday announced that the state will not seek the death penalty for disgraced former Hampton County lawyer Alex Murdaugh, who is accused of brutally murdering his wife and youngest son.

    “After carefully reviewing this case and all the surrounding facts, we have decided to seek life without parole for Alex Murdaugh,” Wilson said in a statement.

    Wilson declined to elaborate on the reasoning behind the decision, citing the pending nature of the case.

    Murdaugh is set to stand trial for the June 2021 murders beginning January 23, 2023. He has maintained his innocence since being charged in July of 2022.

    Murdaugh is also facing 99 other charges for financial crimes ranging from misallocation of client/company funds to tax evasion.

    Murdaugh’s defense team provided the following statement:

    “We are not surprised but also welcome the decision to not seek the death penalty for Alex Murdaugh. Now there is no impediment for going ahead with the trial scheduled for January 23, when we look forward to evidence, not leaks, determining the outcome.”

    https://www.cbs17.com/news/south/ag-...-murdaugh/amp/
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  5. #15
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    Murdaugh murders: mysterious snapchat video 'critical' to case: prosecutors

    Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were gunned down June 7, 2021, at the family's hunting estate

    By Rebecca Rosenberg
    Fox News

    FIRST ON FOX: Alex Murdaugh's youngest son Paul Murdaugh sent his friends a Snapchat video shortly before his murder – and it is a key piece of evidence in the state's case against him, South Carolina prosecutors revealed Wednesday in a new court filing.

    The disbarred attorney is slated to go to trial Jan. 23 for the double slaying of Paul, 22, and his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, in June 2021.

    "Amongst other things, critical to the case is a video sent out to several friends at approximately 7:56 p.m. on the night of the murders," wrote Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General Creighton Waters in a petition to secure the attendance of a Snapchat witness. "The contents of this video is important to proving the State's case in chief."

    It's the first time the video has been mentioned publicly by prosecutors, who have been tightlipped about the evidence they have against the scion of the once powerful legal dynasty.

    In the filing, the prosecutor asked Judge Clifton Newman to sign an order requiring a Snapchat representative to testify at the Colleton County trial.

    "The witness, Snapchat Inc Custodian of Records, of Santa Monica, California, is a material witness because in a search warrant return, Snapchat provided records belonging to one of the victims in this case," Creighton wrote in the petition. "Because this video was provided by Snapchat, a Snapchat custodian is required to testify in person that the video is a true and accurate record kept in the normal course of business activity."

    The judge signed the order requiring the Snapchat representative's attendance from January 23rd "until the witness testifies or the case is disposed of."

    The documents do not indicate what is shown on the Snapchat video.

    Alex Murdaugh, 54, is accused of gunning down his troubled son and his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, June 7, 2021, near the dog kennels on their sprawling 1700-acre hunting estate known as Moselle in Islandton, South Carolina.

    Prosecutors say the disgraced attorney used a shotgun to blow off his son's head, which was "severed" from his body, according to court papers.

    Maggie Murdaugh was shot with a semiautomatic rifle five times – including in the back of the head – and died about 30 yards from her son, court papers allege.

    Prosecutors have suggested that the family patriarch murdered Paul and Maggie Murdaugh over mounting debts and fear his decades-long schemes to embezzle money from his clients would be exposed.

    Alex Murdaugh alleges that he found his wife and son's lifeless bodies at 10:06 p.m. when he placed a hysterical 911 call to police.

    More than an hour earlier, a video recorded at 8:44 p.m. shows Paul Murdaugh with his father and his mother, prosecutors previously disclosed. The footage was retrieved from the slain son's phone.

    Prosecutors said the victims were killed between 8:44 p.m. and 10:06 p.m. — while the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division previously provided a narrower window of 9 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

    A spokesman for the South Carolina Attorney General's Office declined to comment on the Snapchat video.

    "We can't comment on anything other than what we say in court or in our court filings," said Robert Kittle told Fox News Digital.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/murdaugh-...se-prosecutors
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #16
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    On stand, Alex Murdaugh denies killings but admits lying

    By Jeffrey Collins
    Action News Jax

    Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh denied killing his wife and son but admitted lying to investigators about when he last saw them alive as he took the stand in his own defense Thursday.

    Murdaugh, 54, is charged with murder in the fatal shootings of his wife, Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, who were killed near kennels on their property on June 7, 2021. In his testimony, Murdaugh continued to staunchly deny any role in the killings.

    “I would never intentionally do anything to hurt either one of them,” Murdaugh said, tears running down his cheeks.

    Prosecutors spent four weeks of the trial painting Murdaugh as a liar who stole money from clients and decided to kill his wife and son because he wanted sympathy to buy time to cover up his financial crimes that were about to be discovered. They have detailed what they called lie after lie, saying Murdaugh reacts violently when the truth is about to emerge, like trying to arrange his own death after his law firm fired him three months after the killings.

    Murdaugh lied about being at the kennels with his wife and son shortly before their killings for 20 months before taking the stand Thursday, day 23 of his trial. Murdaugh blamed the lie — first told to a state law enforcement agent hours after the killings — on his addiction to opioids, which he said clouded his thinking and created a distrust of police.

    “As my addiction evolved over time, I would get in these situations, these circumstances where I would get paranoid thinking,” Murdaugh said.

    The once-prominent attorney had told police that he was napping and did not go to the kennels before leaving the house to visit his ailing mother in another town. But several witnesses testified that they believed they heard Murdaugh's voice along with his son and wife on cellphone video taken at the kennels about five minutes before the shootings. It took investigators more than a year to hack into Paul Murdaugh's iPhone and find the video.

    Once Alex Murdaugh started lying about being at the kennels, he said he felt he had to continue: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave. Once I told a lie — I told my family — I had to keep lying.”

    For prosecutors, that lie underpins a case where investigators haven’t presented the weapons used to kill the victims, a confession, surveillance video or clothes covered in blood. Murdaugh faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted.

    Murdaugh testified that his wife asked him to go to the kennels the evening of the killings, so he rode down in a golf cart and wrestled a chicken away from a dog before returning to the house and deciding to go visit his ailing mother.

    He said that, after returning home from visiting his mother, neither his wife nor his son was in the house. After several minutes, Murdaugh said, he drove his SUV to the kennels where he said he last saw them.

    Murdaugh described arriving to find the grisly scene of the killings, pausing his testimony for several seconds as he cried. "It was so bad," he said.

    After his dramatic opening questions about whether Murdaugh killed his son and wife, defense attorney Jim Griffin led his client though several key points of the case.

    Murdaugh said he never saw a blue rain jacket that prosecutors found at his mother's home with gunshot residue on the lining. He said his mother's caretaker was mistaken when she said he came by unexpectedly at 6:30 a.m. acting oddly.

    He told Griffin several times that he urged investigators to get GPS data from his SUV or his wife's phone that would exonerate him. Earlier defense testimony suggested state agents waited too long to get that information from Maggie Murdaugh's device and it was overwritten for the night of the killings.

    Throughout his testimony, Murdaugh called his son “Paul Paul” and his wife “Mags,” though he didn’t use those nicknames in three interviews with police.

    Defense attorneys told the judge that Murdaugh might not have testified at all if prosecutors hadn't been allowed to introduce evidence of financial crimes.

    Murdaugh admitted in court that he stole money from clients and blamed an addiction to painkillers from the lingering effects of a college football injury that got worse nearly two decades ago.

    “I’m not quite sure how I let myself get where I got. I battled that addiction for so many years. I was spending so much money on pills,” Murdaugh said.

    Murdaugh is charged with about 100 other crimes, ranging from stealing from clients to tax evasion. He is being held without bail on those charges, so even if he is found not guilty of the killings, he will not walk out of court a free man. If convicted of most or all of those financial crimes, Murdaugh would likely spend decades in prison.

    Prosecutor Creighton Waters didn’t question Murdaugh about the murders at the start of his cross-examination, focusing instead on clients Murdaugh stole money from.

    “We heard about it in a very academic, paperwork manner. But in every one of these, you had to sit down and look somebody in the eye and convince them you were on their side when you were not,” Waters said.

    Murdaugh said he couldn't remember all the details of the thefts that took place over at least 13 years and offered a blanket statement that he was wrong, which Waters rejected before hammering on the personal nature of the thefts.

    “There were plenty of conversations where I looked people in the eye and lied to them,” Murdaugh eventually conceded.

    https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/s...4ISNJSZLYZZTI/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #17
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    Verdict reached in Alex Murdaugh double murder trial

    Graham Cawthon

    A verdict has been reached in the double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh.

    There is no word yet on when that verdict will be announced.

    The jurors told the clerk of court they had a verdict at 6:41 p.m.

    The disbarred South Carolina attorney is charged with the murders of his wife and son.

    Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were found shot to death on the family’s nearly 1,800-acre property in Colleton County on June 7, 2021.

    Months after the murders, Murdaugh came under scrutiny after he was discovered to have stolen funds from his law firm and admitted to staging his own attempted suicide, trying to make it appear to be a homicide so his surviving son could inherit a life insurance policy.

    Murdaugh would go on to be charged with roughly 100 financial crimes, alleging he stole millions of dollars from clients and peers, before being indicted for the murders of Maggie and Paul on July 14, 2022.

    The case has garnered international attention for its many twists and turns, and for the family’s connections to other controversial deaths in the area: Stephen Smith in 2015, Gloria Satterfield in 2018 and Mallory Beach in 2019.

    The verdict follows nearly six weeks of testimony from more than 70 witnesses.

    Murdaugh’s financial cases are still pending.

    https://www.wjcl.com/amp/article/ale...rdict/43164774
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

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  8. #18
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    Jury Finds Murdaugh Guilty of Murdering Wife and Son: Live Updates

    The prominent South Carolina lawyer was accused of killing his wife and son in June 2021. On the stand, he admitted to lying and stealing, but tearfully denied the murders.

    Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs

    Alex Murdaugh, the fourth-generation lawyer whose family long exerted influence in small town South Carolina courtrooms, was convicted on Thursday of murdering his wife and son, sealing the dramatic downfall of a man who had substantial wealth and powerful connections but who lived a secret life in which he stole millions of dollars from clients and colleagues and lied to many of those closest to him.

    The guilty verdict in Walterboro, S.C., followed a closely watched trial that lasted nearly six weeks, and it came more than 20 months after the June 2021 fatal shootings of Mr. Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, 52, and their younger son, Paul, 22, near the dog kennels on the family’s rural estate. The grisly crime stunned the South Carolina Lowcountry in part because of the storied history of the Murdaugh family, which controlled a regional prosecutor’s office for more than 80 years and ran a law firm for even longer.

    In finding Mr. Murdaugh guilty, jurors rejected his claim that he had left the crime scene minutes before the shootings, an assertion Mr. Murdaugh made from the witness stand only after prosecutors played a video contradicting his longstanding claim to have never been there at all. The crucial, minute-long video recorded at the kennels happened to capture Mr. Murdaugh’s voice in the background. It was taken by Paul Murdaugh in one of his last living moments in an act that inadvertently helped to secure the conviction of his father.

    Here’s what to know about the case:

    Prosecutors said Mr. Murdaugh killed his wife and son in a failed effort to keep his longtime embezzlement of millions of dollars from being exposed. Defense lawyers argued that the police had become so fixated on Mr. Murdaugh as a suspect that they had “fabricated” evidence and a dubious theory about his possible motive.

    The prosecution leaned on Mr. Murdaugh’s lies in its arguments to the jury — he also admitted to a string of falsehoods to his legal clients and partners as he stole from them over a course of many years — but there is little in the way of physical evidence in the case. Read about the key elements of the trial.

    Alex Murdaugh was known as a well-connected player in the clubby legal world of South Carolina. Three generations of the Murdaugh family, including Alex Murdaugh’s father, served as the top prosecutor in South Carolina’s 14th Judicial Circuit, a largely rural region comprising five counties and 3,200 square miles.

    Judge Clifton Newman says that he will wait for a later date to sentence Alex Murdaugh, “given the lateness of the hour and the victims’ rights that must be taken into consideration.” The minimum sentence for murder is 30 years in prison. Prosecutors have said they will seek life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/03...-trial-verdict
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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    I have a feeling this guy is going to kill himself.

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    Convicted killer Alex Murdaugh sentenced to life in prison

    Jurors reached a guilty verdict on all counts in less than three hours after a six-week trial

    By Rebecca Rosenberg | Fox News

    WALTERBORO, S.C. – Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison Friday, capping off the sordid and spectacular downfall of the scion of a powerful legal dynasty.

    Murdaugh defiantly proclaimed his innocence. "Morning, your Honor, I’m innocent, I would never hurt my wife, Maggie, and I would never hurt my son, PawPaw. Thank you," he said.

    All pretense of innocence was stripped from Murdaugh, who stood before the judge a convicted murderer, donning for the first time a beige prison-issue jumpsuit and wrist and leg shackles.

    Judge Clifton Newman excoriated the 54-year-old defendant before handing down the punishment.

    You’ve engaged in such duplicitous conduct here in the courtroom, here on the witness stand and as established by the testimony," he said. "This has been perhaps one of the most troubling cases, not just for me as a judge, for the state, for the defense team but for all of the citizens in this community," he added.

    He described Murdaugh's once prominent position in the community as a "lawyer, a person from a respected family who has controlled justice in this community for over a century."

    Newman told Murdaugh that even if he continues to deny his guilt publicly, he'll have to deal with the haunting crime he's committed in his own soul.

    "I know you have to see Paul and Maggie during the nighttimes when you’re attempting to go to sleep. I’m sure they come and visit you. I’m sure," he said.

    Newman could have imposed a minimum sentence of 30 years to up to life behind bars.

    The murderous patriarch’s fate was handed down one day after the jury found him guilty of two counts each of murder and possession of a weapon in the commission of a violent felony for slaughtering his wife and son to escape accountability for his financial crimes.

    Murdaugh used a shotgun to kill his son, Paul, 22, inside a feed room attached to the dog kennels at the family's hunting estate, known as Moselle, and a rifle to execute his wife, Maggie, 52, June 7, 2021.

    After deliberating for less than three hours Thursday in the Colleton County Courthouse, the panel delivered their guilty verdict.

    Jurors had endured a wearying six-week trial and testimony from 76 witnesses — for which they were paid just $20 a day. The trial — which drew global coverage — was originally supposed to last three weeks.

    The jury did not pose a single question to judge or request clarification during their speedy deliberations.

    Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters told the panel that the disgraced attorney carried out the double slayings in a desperate act of self-preservation.

    The day of the killings, the chief financial officer of his former law firm confronted Murdaugh about missing fees, and he had a hearing scheduled later that week in a wrongful death lawsuit stemming from a deadly 2019 boat wreck.

    Paul Murdaugh had crashed his father's boat into a bridge, killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach and injuring four other friends, and Murdaugh was facing a multimillion-dollar claim.

    The murders, Waters argued, bought Murdaugh time, delaying an inevitable financial reckoning.

    He was later charged with stealing nearly $9 million from his clients and his law firm, which was founded by his great-grandfather, who served as the top prosecutor overseeing five counties in the Lowcountry.

    Three generations of the Murdaugh family controlled the office for 87 years. The reign only ended with the retirement of Murdaugh’s late father, Randolph Murdaugh III, in 2005.

    Murdaugh took the stand last week and admitted he's a drug addict, a thief and a liar – but adamantly denied killing his wife and son.

    However, he could not explain away a damning and ultimately pivotal piece of evidence in the case.

    He had told friends, family and investigators that he never went to the kennels that night and was taking a nap at the main house when they were killed.

    But a video recovered from Paul's phone in 2022 placed Murdaugh at the murder scene with both victims four minutes before they were shot to death, shredding his alibi.

    He claimed his oxycodone addiction made him paranoid of law enforcement, although he had an exceptionally cozy relationship with local prosecutors and the surrounding sheriffs' offices.

    The Murdaugh name wielded enormous influence, and Alex Murdaugh even served as a volunteer prosecutor who carried a badge and had blue police lights installed on his private vehicle.

    Waters told jurors Murdaugh was a cunning conman who tried to deceive them when he took the stand last week.

    "This is a man who made his trade on lying. He lied about the most important facts in the case and effortlessly and easily pivoted to a new lie when confronted by something he wasn’t prepared for," Waters said.

    "He fooled Maggie and Paul, too, and they paid for it with their lives. Don’t let him fool you, too," the prosecutor said.

    Defense lawyers Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin repeatedly portrayed Murdaugh as a doting father and husband incapable of committing such a brutal and heinous crime.

    Griffin argued in summations that investigators "failed miserably" in their probe and would have found the real killer if they had done their job.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/convicted...-in-prison.amp
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