Murdaugh trial

A South Carolina jury found disbarred attorney Richard "Alex" Murdaugh guilty of murder in the 2021 killings of his wife and son. Also in the news: A ...

[pits advocates against lobstermen](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/02/28/saving-endangered-right-whales-pits-advocates-against-lobstermen/11109487002/). [Angela Bassett](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2023/03/02/angela-bassett-talks-oscar-nomination-black-panther-wakanda-forever/11322727002/)is long overdue for an Oscar. [Here's a guide](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2023/03/02/new-movies-see-week-creed-3-operation-fortune/11358229002/) to new movies that will satisfy every cinematic taste. [sign up for the email here](https://profile.usatoday.com/newsletters/Daily-Briefing/). [TV Review](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2023/03/02/daisy-jones-and-the-six-review-featherweight-flop/11359786002/): Riley Keough can sing, but ''Daisy Jones & the Six'' is a featherweight flop. [Biden wants more nursing home staff](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2023/03/03/biden-nurses-medicare-medicaid-funding-nursing-homes-reform-staffing/11311567002/), but owners say they need more funding. [This has been a long, complex trial](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/03/02/alex-murdaugh-verdict/11364191002/). ''Just hang in there, girl.'' [Time announced its 2023 Women of the Year](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2023/03/02/time-women-of-year-2023-quinta-brunson-cate-blanchett/11386102002/): Quinta Brunson, Cate Blanchett, more honored. [Here's a look at back at significant milestones for women in Congress](https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2023/03/02/history-women-milestones-congress/11357670002/). [Murdaugh himself took the stand in his own defense last week](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/02/23/alex-murdaugh-testifies-murder-trial/11330239002/). You can listen to the podcast every day on [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/5-things/id975311694), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/01lfF43JXe9yW6AKxxwhUC), or on your smart speaker. [5 Things podcast](https://art19.com/shows/5-things), Hampton County Guardian Managing Editor Michael DeWitt, Jr.

Jurors -- and the packed gallery -- heard testimony from dozens of witnesses since the trial started on Jan. 23 in the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, ...

Jurors were able to visit the feed room at the dog kennels where Paul Murdaugh was shot, saw the shed where his mother's body was found and paid a brief visit to the Murdaugh home itself. To demonstrate Paul Murdaugh being shot in the back of the head at point-blank range, as put forth by the defense, State Attorney General Alan Wilson walked through a courtroom doorway past Kinsey, then turned and pointed a rifle over his head as Kinsey bent over. During his testimony, he denied shooting his wife and son but admitted to lying to investigators about his whereabouts the night of the murders. Forensic pathologist Jonathan Eisenstat testified that Paul Murdaugh's fatal shot to the head was delivered downward, not upward, as pathologist Dr. Alex Murdaugh was called by his defense team to testify and took the stand for several hours on Feb. He had said he was napping at the family house before visiting his mother, then found the bodies upon returning home.

Prosecutors argue Alex Murdaugh killed his relatives to distract from multi-million-dollar financial fraud crimes. Hours before, one of the 12 jurors was ...

"All parties are entitled to a fair and impartial trial," he said. "You have been by all accounts a great juror, and smiled consistently and seemingly been attentive to the case and performed well," he told the woman in front of the court. "I'm not suggesting that you intentionally did anything wrong, but in order to preserve the integrity of the process and in fairness to all the parties involved, we are going to replace you with one of the other jurors."

Jurors in Alex Murdaugh's murder trial got to see for themselves the rural hunting estate where his wife and son were killed, following in the footsteps of ...

[Autos](https://www.ctvnews.ca/autos) [Ford to raise production as U.S. jury poised to weigh international soccer's ugly side](https://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/u-s-jury-poised-to-weigh-international-soccer-s-ugly-side-1.6298677) CTVNews.ca is tracking monthly changes in grocery prices, using Statistics Canada inflation data, to help consumers monitor the impact on their food bills. Ontarians are bracing for a snowstorm that is expected to dump upwards of 20 centimetres on parts of the province, while B.C. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues "They were very curious about how far up they can go up that stairwell," said Raleigh News & Observer reporter Demorris Lee, who went with the jurors, according to a Court TV report. The visit in that case was requested by prosecutors, who said jurors needed to see the scene to understand the horror of what happened. "In the interest of justice, it is probably a good thing for them to see it." Trees planted between the Murdaugh home and the kennels grew taller and thicker over that period -- blocking the line of sight they alleged would have allowed Murdaugh to see the kennel lights when he said he returned from visiting his mother. Only 16 minutes passed between when the victims stopped using their cellphones and Murdaugh left the house about 1,100 feet (335 meters) from the crime scene. When jurors are taken to the scene of a crime, they are generally advised not to share their thoughts with one another because deliberations don't begin until both sides are done presenting evidence. In many cases, it doesn't happen because the trial is taking place years later, so the scene has changed and taking jurors there could provide a false impression of what happened.

The 54-year-old disbarred South Carolina lawyer faces a sentence of 30 years to life in prison for each murder conviction.

"This defendant has fooled everyone — everyone who thought they were close to him," Waters told the jury in his closing argument. He was facing a financial reckoning, they said, that also included his liability in a court case over a fatal 2019 boating accident in which Paul, then 19, was said to be driving. Prosecutors never produced the two murder weapons used to kill Maggie and Paul, and there were no eyewitnesses. But after witnesses identified Murdaugh's voice in a cellphone video taken by Paul at the kennel around 8:45 p.m. Newman had said he would render his sentence after any victim impact statements, but prosecutor Creighton Waters began his remarks by saying the state did not have anyone who wanted to deliver a victim statement. "It's so unfortunate, because you had such a lovely family of such friendly people — including you," the judge told Murdaugh. The sentencing closes a six-week-long trial that charted Murdaugh's fall from grace. Murdaugh said repeatedly that he didn't go with his wife and son to the dog kennels where they were shot and killed, saying that he stayed in the house, and took a nap before leaving to see his ailing mother. The court session began shortly after 9:30 a.m. Thank you." "Good morning, your honor. Newman told Murdaugh that each of the punishments apply to "the rest of your natural life," adding that the sentences are consecutive.

But two years ago that life unravelled when Alex Murdaugh - the fourth generation scion of a local legal dynasty - called police to report his wife Maggie and ...

One of these jobs, according to Alex Murdaugh and his lawyers, was to act as Mr Murdaugh's "personal drug dealer" and regularly supply Mr Murdaugh with pills. Mr Murdaugh admitted on the stand he had lied. He had been drunk, they said, descending into a cruel and angry alter ego that friends had nick-named "Timmy", and who allegedly hit his girlfriend the night of the accident. but he took care of so many," his father said at the trial. A mobile phone video taken at the Murdaughs' dog kennels by Paul about five minutes before prosecutors say the killings took place features the voice of Mr Murdaugh talking to Bubba. Testifying at his murder trial, he confessed to the theft, blaming a desperate and expensive addiction to oxycodone. But he briefly found himself in hot water after reportedly passing his father a John Grisham novel, which was later deemed contraband. A full-time homemaker, she was described as an adoring mother to her two sons. Buster testified in his father's defence, describing Mr Murdaugh as a loving presence who was "destroyed" by the murders of Maggie and Paul. But the strangest request came in September 2021, three months after Maggie and Paul's murders, when Mr Murdaugh asked Mr Smith to meet him on the side of a rural road one Saturday, and shoot him in the back of the head. He is now on trial for their murders. But the patina of success hid a number of seedy secrets - Mr Murdaugh was stealing from his clients and colleagues, as much as $3.7m (£3m) in a single year alone.

The jury on Thursday convicted Alex Murdaugh, a prominent South Carolina lawyer, of murdering his wife and son.

The prosecution seized on that admission — how readily, and easily, he had lied to the police, his family and friends — in an attempt to convince the jury that he was lying about not having killed his wife and son. He also said that when he spoke with his father about 20 minutes after prosecutors say the murders took place, Alex Murdaugh sounded “normal” — at a time that Mr. “He said that he did not know who it was, but he felt like whoever did it had thought about it for a long time,” Ms. Murdaugh’s law firm confronted him, accusing him of pocketing about $800,000 in lawyer fees that he was supposed to have deposited into the firm’s account. Murdaugh testified that he had feared an admission that he was at the kennels before the murders would cause the police to consider him a suspect. Defense lawyers also noted that the police had issued a statement in the days after the killings saying that no immediate threat to the public existed. Murdaugh was wearing when police arrived after he called 911 — it would have been covered in blood and body matter, his lawyers argued — and the DNA of an unknown man was discovered under Mrs. That was an indication, they argued, that the authorities were investigating only Mr. After denying for more than 20 months that he was at the dog kennels where his wife and son were found shot to death, Alex Murdaugh confessed that he had lied about his whereabouts. Murdaugh’s phone from the day of the killings had been overwritten. Murdaugh told his lawyer that he had been there for a few minutes, but then had left, laid down at the house, and driven to check on his ailing mother who lived about 15 minutes away. He blamed his lies to the police on paranoia spurred by opiate dependency, as well as his distrust of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, a state investigative agency.

The five-week trial of Alex Murdaugh has dominated headlines and cable news channels, and the murders have been the subject of podcasts and even two ...

I think people like to have endings and they like to have justice. I think that's been a big, big selling point for Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, that we get the bad guys. But, you know, on the other hand, we don't know who's carrying a gun in many places now in the United States. These are cases of human behavior that go way, way, way to the nth degree that we don't experience in our own lives every day. And most of us, I hope, wouldn't go so far as to murder our families ... In this case, the victims are dead, but we still want to seek some kind of justice.

In a remarkable courtroom moment, the judge in Alex Murdaugh's murder trial spoke in stark and personal terms ahead of the disgraced lawyer's sentencing ...

That is the sentence of the court and you are remanded to the state Department of Corrections. For the murder of Paul Murdaugh, whom you probably loved so much, I sentence you to prison for murdering him for the rest of your natural life. I sentence you for the term of the rest of your natural life. Murdaugh, I sentence you to the state Department of Corrections on each of the murder indictments. And then that necessitated more lies and continued to lie, and I say when will it end, it has already ended for many who have heard you and concluded that it will never end. “It might have been the monster you become when you take 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 opioid pills, and maybe you become another person. I have not been able to get anyone, any defendant, even those who have confessed to being guilty to go back and explain to me what happened at that moment in time when they opted to pull the trigger, when they opted to commit the most heinous crime known to man.” I don’t question at all the decision of the state not to pursue the death penalty. And reflect on the last time they looked you in the eyes, as you looked the jury in the eyes.” “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, all the citizens in this state, as we have seen based on the media coverage throughout the nation,” Newman said. A lawyer, a person from the respected family who has controlled justice in this community for over a century, a person whose grandfather’s portrait hang at the back of the courthouse that I had to have ordered removed in order to ensure that a fair trial was had by both the state and the defense. In fact, as I have presided over murder cases over the past 22 years, I have yet to find a defendant who could go there, who could go back to that moment in time when they decided to pull the trigger or to otherwise murder someone.

The disgraced South Carolina lawyer was charged in the murders of his wife and son. His defense argued that investigators fabricated evidence.

In his new version of events, Murdaugh admitted being there, but he said he went back to the house minutes before 9 p.m. In his closing argument, Waters stressed to jurors that he thinks one thing was missing from the two days Murdaugh spent testifying. "You want to leave the eggs or take the eggs?" But, he said, she would be replaced so that the integrity of the trial would remain intact. Griffin began his statement with an overview of the criminal legal system, comparing the trial to an instant-replay review in college football. The court received a complaint from a member of the public saying the juror, a woman identified only as juror No. He noted that South Carolina law doesn't require the state to prove premeditation or motive in a murder case. Griffin accused the agency of a list of failures, saying the state never explained if tests were performed on hair he said was found in Maggie's fingers. Once investigators seized on the idea that tests showed high-velocity blood spatter on Alex Murdaugh's T-shirt, he added, they refused to dismiss that idea and pursued it "with vengeance." As for the lies Murdaugh admitted telling, Griffin said his client lied because "that's what addicts do." But when the state was faced with mixed results and questions over tests of Murdaugh's shirt, Griffin said, they embraced a "Mr. A defense attorney for Murdaugh sought to sow doubt about the work by police and forensics teams, saying they fell far short of preserving evidence from the crime scene.

A Snapchat video, a missing gun and unanswered calls - here are the moments that will weigh on jurors.

Prosecutors alleged that Mr Murdaugh used one of these - a .300 Blackout assault-style rifle - to kill Maggie. The Murdaughs at one point had two custom Blackout rifles, given to Paul and his brother Buster as Christmas gift. But Mr Murdaugh's elderly father was dying, and so Mrs Proctor encouraged her to support him. I loved Maggie "more than anything," he said. But Mr Murdaugh testified that Maggie had not planned to see his parents, and that he asked his wife to simply return because he wanted to be with her. The prosecution has argued Mr Murdaugh killed his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, in attempt to conceal years of financial crimes, crimes he himself admitted to in court.

Defense attorneys representing Alex Murdaugh wrapped their closing arguments in his double-murder trial Thursday afternoon after six weeks of testimonies, ...

He also faces [charges](https://www.forbes.com/sites/annakaplan/2021/11/19/alex-murdaugh-indicted-on-dozens-of-money-laundering-fraud-charges/?sh=4504b8ce2e5b) for allegedly hiring a former client to murder him last fall in a scheme to allow his son to collect a $10 million life insurance policy. The previous four left for health reasons. Clifton granted the request despite opposition from prosecutors, who argued the property has changed since Maggie and Paul were found dead. [removed](https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/03/02/juror-removed-from-alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-for-discussing-case-outside-courtroom/?sh=67994c694247) one of the 12 jurors from the panel before the defense made its closing arguments Thursday morning, after that juror improperly discussed the matters of the case outside of the courtroom. [financial crimes charges](https://www.forbes.com/sites/annakaplan/2022/01/21/alex-murdaugh-facing-over-70-financial-crimes-charges-after-indictments-allege-he-defrauded-victims-out-of-nearly-9-million/?sh=4dbf942f7007), including money laundering and computer crimes counts, for allegedly swindling nearly $9 million from victims. [Police found](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/14/us/alex-murdaugh-shooting-arrest.html) Murdaugh on the side of a road in South Carolina with a gunshot wound in his head.

Murdaugh, a once-prominent South Carolina attorney, was found guilty of two counts of murder and faces 30 years to life in prison for the convictions.

Before he was charged with murder, Murdaugh was in jail awaiting trial on about 100 other charges ranging from insurance fraud to tax evasion. Murdaugh lied about being at the kennels for 20 months before taking the stand on the 23rd day of his trial. Murdaugh comes from a family that dominated the local legal scene for decades. Murdaugh called 911 and said he discovered the bodies when he returned home. He blamed his decadeslong addiction to opioids for making him paranoid, creating a distrust of police. I would never hurt Maggie, and I would never hurt Paul — ever — under any circumstances,” Murdaugh said.

WALTERBORO, S.C. (AP) — Disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh has now been convicted of murder in a trial that attracted intense public attention to the Southern ...

The jury in the double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh has found him guilty of murdering his wife and son, the grisliest and most severe of the allegations ...

Logan Sargeant, who moved to Europe as a teenager to pursue his dream, has beaten all the odds and will debut for Williams in this weekend's season-opening F1 race in Bahrain. And the opportunity was Murdaugh's presence at the crime scene, as revealed in a pivotal video and confirmed by his own testimony, minutes before the murders. The prosecution argued Murdaugh's motive in the killings was to distract and delay investigations into his financial wrongdoing. Vegas acquired Quick from Columbus on Thursday, less than 36 hours after the Los Angeles Kings traded the two-time Stanley Cup-winning goaltender and 2014 playoff MVP to the Blue Jackets. The father of the cellphone was there. In the prosecution's telling, the motive was Murdaugh's attempt to distract and delay investigations into his growing financial problems. Griffin acknowledged Murdaugh had lied about being at the dog kennels where his wife and son were killed on the night of the murders. The former star of St. At the same time, he admitted he had lied to investigators about his whereabouts just prior to the killings due to paranoia from his drug addiction. Murdaugh was a partner at a powerful law firm with his name on it. He further admitted to stealing millions of dollars from his former clients and law firm and lying to cover his tracks. "I find it offensive that the defence ...

Before defense attorney Jim Griffin began his closing argument, South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman removed one of the jurors for talking about ...

Murdaugh initially told police he was not at the family's dog kennels before finding the bodies there, but [admitted in court he lied to investigators](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/02/23/alex-murdaugh-testifies-murder-trial/11330239002/) and that his voice could be heard on the video. He said there was not enough time for Murdaugh to have committed the crimes and hidden the evidence before driving to his mother's house.] [Prosecutor describes Murdaugh's 'motive,' 'means,' 'opportunity,' and 'guilty acts'] [Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters said "gathering storm" was threatening Murdaugh's family legacy and successful law practice and Murdaugh killed his family to avoid being held accountable. [Defense attorney criticizes prosecution's evidence, motive] [Murdaugh’s defense attorney Jim Griffin began his closing argument by emphasizing that the jury must presume Murdaugh is innocent unless they believe the prosecution has met their burden to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.] [Griffin said investigators with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division failed to collect key evidence from the crime scene because they were too focused on Murdaugh as a suspect.] ["We believe that we've shown conclusively that SLED failed miserably in investigating this case and had they done a competent job that Alex would have been excluded from that circle a year ago, two years ago," Griffin said.] [Griffin said Murdaugh's financial problems and drug addiction made him an "easy target" for investigators and law enforcement began fabricating evidence against him. “As all these pressures were mounting, the defendant killed Maggie and Paul," Waters said. "He would have to be a magician to make all that evidence disappear." "How could he have butchered Maggie and Paul without leaving a trace of evidence in a matter of minutes?" "What kind of sense does that make?" Meadors argued Murdaugh would not have admitted to lying unless the video placing him at the scene was found. [is seeking life in prison](http://bit.ly/3XXu8O3) if Murdaugh, 54, is convicted in the killings of his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and son Paul Murdaugh. Meadors rehashed testimony about a blue, poncho-like raincoat found at Murdaugh's parent's home which had gunshot residue on it and Murdaugh changing clothes day the of the killings. The juror was replaced with an alternate.

After deliberating for less than three hours Thursday, the jury in the double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh found him guilty of murdering his wife and son, ...

[prosecution argued Murdaugh’s motive](https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/02/us/alex-murdaugh-trial-defense-closings-thursday/index.html) in the killings was to distract and delay investigations into his financial wrongdoing. [denied](http://www.cnn.com/2023/02/23/us/alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-thursday/index.html) killing his wife and son. In the prosecution’s telling, the motive was Murdaugh’s attempt to distract and delay investigations into his growing financial problems. Griffin acknowledged Murdaugh had lied about being at the dog kennels where his wife and son were killed on the night of the murders. And the opportunity was Murdaugh’s presence at the crime scene, “Our criminal justice system worked tonight,” Wilson said. “Everyone who thought they knew who he was, he’s fooled them all. He further admitted to [stealing millions of dollars](https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/24/us/alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-friday/index.html) from his former clients and law firm and lying to cover his tracks. has fooled everyone, everyone, everyone who thought they were close to him,” prosecutor Creighton Waters told the jury. “I find it offensive that the defense … Murdaugh kept a stony face while the verdicts were read. His only remaining son, Buster Murdaugh, could be seen wiping tears from his eyes.