Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of the murders of his wife and son after the jury spent less than three hours deliberating.
The disgraced legal scout, 54, trembled as he stood as the verdict was read after six weeks of harrowing testimony at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina.
His surviving son, Buster, appeared petrified, sitting with one hand over his mouth next to his girlfriend, Brooklynn White, who was looking down at the floor.
The disfellowshipped attorney, 54, turned to the couple and his sister Lynn as the bailiff handcuffed him and led him away. Neither his brothers, John Marvin, nor Randy, who had attended court most days, were present.
Murdaugh brutally shot and killed his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, on the night of June 7, 2021 at the family’s sprawling hunting estate in Moselle, South Carolina.
The disfellowshipped lawyer lied to police about his whereabouts that night before making the startling decision to take a stand last week, claiming his opioid addiction has made him paranoid.
But the state convinced the jury that he killed the couple to distract from the millions he stole from his law firm and a looming lawsuit over Paul’s drunken boatwreck that threatened to bankrupt him financially.
Murdaugh will return for the sentencing hearing at 9.30am on Friday. He faces 30 years to life imprisonment after being convicted of two counts of murder and two counts of gun offenses.
The disgraced legal scout, 54, trembled as he stood as the verdict was read after six weeks of harrowing testimony at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina
His surviving son, Buster, appeared petrified, sitting next to his girlfriend Brooklynn White with one hand over his mouth and looking down
Murdaugh is taken away in handcuffs after being convicted of shooting his wife Maggie and son Paul
Buster, Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh at Lake Kiwi in May 2021 to celebrate the birth of Maggie’s niece’s child
Judge Clifton Newman dismissed a defense motion for a trial and thanked the jury for their finding.
The judge said, “The circumstantial evidence, direct evidence, all the evidence pointed to a conclusion and that’s the conclusion you all came to.”
Prosecutor Creighton Waters said of the jury’s closing argument yesterday: “The pressure on this man was unbearable and all reached a crescendo on the day his wife and son were murdered by him.”
On the day of the murders, he was faced with over $792,000 that had “disappeared” in a recent case. In the months that followed, it was revealed that he had stolen more than $10 million from customers and associates of his firm.
He was due to appear in court three days after the murders, in a trial over his son’s drunken boating accident that killed a teenage girl two years earlier.
Family patriarch Randolph III, whom Murdaugh had repeatedly turned to for massive six-figure loans and on whom he was emotionally dependent, was terminally ill with cancer. He died three days after the murders.
To add insult to injury, prosecutors say Murdaugh’s opioid pill habit was spiraling and, by the defendant’s own admission, “withdrawal symptoms would drive him to do anything.”
“Nobody knew who this man was,” Waters told the court.
He concluded the speech with the fervent plea: “This defendant fooled everyone, everyone. He fooled everyone who thought he was close, and he fooled Maggie and Paul too, and they paid the price with their lives. Don’t let him fool you either.”
In Thursday’s closing arguments, Murdaugh’s attorney accused investigators of falsifying evidence.
He said the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), the state’s version of the FBI, failed to secure the crime scene and examine key evidence that could have exonerated Murdaugh, instead focusing on him because he was losing his financial investigated misdeeds.
Maggie’s body was found a few yards to the right of a kennel, while Paul’s lay by the door at the end of the kennel
Buster, Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh in a photo posted by the mother for Father’s Day 2020
“That made him an easy, easy, easy target for SLED,” Jim Griffin said, arguing Murdaugh could have been ruled out as a suspect. “SLED failed miserably in investigating this case.”
In Thursday’s rebuttal, Assistant Attorney General John Meadors stressed that prosecutors didn’t need to prove a motive, but said all the evidence pointed to Murdaugh – who he said was more self-conscious – than the killer.
“I don’t know why he killed his wife and son. I don’t have to say why. I think he did it to protect whoever he loved most, who he really loved most, so he could keep his lifestyle and not be financially embarrassed,” Meadors said.
For their part, Murdaugh’s attorneys have tried to portray their client as a loving family man who, despite facing financial difficulties and suffering from an opioid addiction that drives him to lying and stealing, would never harm his wife and child.
They have offered alternative theories, with Murdaugh testifying that he believed anyone upset about a fatal boating accident in 2019 involving Paul was likely seeking revenge on his son.
Griffin described the state’s alleged motive as absurd, arguing that the killings would only prompt more, not less, investigations into allegations of Murdaugh’s financial misdeeds.
Buster Murdaugh, his girlfriend Brooklynn White and Alex’s sister Lynn
Buster Murdaugh, his girlfriend Brooklynn White and Alex’s sister Lynn arrive in court Thursday
Griffin repeatedly stressed the high legal limit in criminal cases of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and underscored the challenge for prosecutors who have based their cases on circumstantial evidence rather than direct evidence.
“If there is any reasonable reason for you to hesitate to write ‘guilty,’ then the law requires you to write ‘not guilty,'” he said.
Griffin also outlined a handful of examples in which he claims the state fabricated evidence. They included the claim that Murdaugh had spattered blood on his shirt at high speed, a claim that was disproved by SLED testing.
Among the state’s strongest evidence is Murdaugh’s admission on the witness stand last week that he lied about his whereabouts on the night of the murders and told investigators he was not in the kennel before the murders.
Murdaugh changed his account after jurors listened to audio evidence that placed him at the scene minutes before the crime.