Alex Murdaugh trial: South Carolina lawyer discovered responsible of killing his spouse and son

Whereas probably the most gripping true crime tales take us into the darkest components of the soul, hardly ever does a case open the ugly coronary heart of the nation itself. The labyrinthine case that’s come to be dubbed “the Murdaugh murders” appears like one that might solely occur in America — a story of generational energy and corruption. It is a Southern Gothic morality play a few rich however fading Southern household whose big quantities of wealth and affect fueled a jaw-dropping spree of recklessness, greed, and homicide.

The trial that gripped a nation — and resulted, March 3, within the conviction of Alex Murdaugh for the double murder of his spouse and son — is about a lot a couple of household tragedy. Even months later, with Murdaugh pleading responsible to 101 prices of cash laundering and different monetary crimes, myriad questions stay about how huge his net of deceit actually was.

What one article aptly referred to as “a variety of lifeless individuals and crime” includes the Murdaugh (pronounced “Murdock”) household, which has amassed energy and wealth in South Carolina for over 100 years. However that century of energy has crumbled in simply half a decade as a result of an extended record of economic crimes and 5 suspicious deaths starting in 2015: an alleged homophobic hate crime; a lethal boating accident; a mysterious fall and insurance coverage rip-off; the double homicide of the household matriarch and favourite son; and a weird roadside incident which will have been one other insurance coverage rip-off. The entire tangled net culminated within the indictment in a South Carolina county courtroom of the floundering patriarch, Alex Murdaugh, for the 2021 murders of his spouse and son — bringing the whole variety of prices he’s dealing with to over 80.

Murdaugh pleaded not responsible to the homicide prices on July 20, 2022, setting the stage for a bombshell trial and media circus that finally resulted in a responsible verdict and two consecutive life sentences. The lead-up to the double murder arguably took place partly as a result of a hit podcast that started as one native journalist’s try and convey consideration to the case. En path to the trial, the Murdaugh murders turned a nationwide true crime obsession, spawning documentaries on HBO and Netflix and riveting tens of 1000’s of livestream courtroom viewers each day.

Able to dive into the small print? You may want an oxygen tank for this one; as you may count on from simply this abstract, these are darkish waters.

Meet the Murdaughs

The Murdaughs have wielded energy over South Carolina’s “Lowcountry,” the luxurious, mossy wedge on the backside of the state, for over 100 years — ever since Randolph Murdaugh Sr. based his regulation workplace in Hampton County in 1910.

The agency ultimately grew into a big, highly effective apply continued by his son, Randolph Jr., and his grandson, Randolph III. From 1920 to 2006, all three males additionally successively held the put up of solicitor (a.okay.a. prosecutor) for South Carolina’s 14th Circuit Courtroom. The Murdaughs’ 86-year stretch serving as circuit solicitors was the longest such household legacy in US historical past. As you may think, it additionally gave the household an unprecedented quantity of energy and affect, not simply over Hampton County however over the opposite 4 counties underneath the circuit’s jurisdiction.

Randolph IV and Alex, two of Randolph III’s sons, adopted of their father’s footsteps and have become legal professionals. As a result of South Carolina ultimately prohibited legal professionals from serving within the conflicting twin roles of public prosecutor and personal legal professional, the lads didn’t function solicitors — however nonetheless served as “volunteer” prosecutors helping their father whereas persevering with the household’s regulation apply. The solicitor’s workplace finally fired Alex, and the household regulation agency modified its identify from Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth and Detrick, often shortened to PMPED, to Parker Legislation Group earlier this yr, prone to escape the rising stigma of the Murdaugh identify — particularly its affiliation with Alex Murdaugh.

Alex, pronounced “Alec,” was a golden baby who sired golden kids. Born in 1967, he adopted in his household’s footsteps and studied regulation on the College of South Carolina, the place he met athlete-turned-sorority-sister Margaret “Maggie” Branstetter. They married in 1993 and subsequently had two sons, Buster, born in 1996, and Paul, born in 1999. The household lived in opulence, dividing their time amongst a seashore home, a few non-public islands, and an enormous 1,772-acre property referred to as Moselle — which, just like the regulation agency, was renamed to flee its connections with the Murdaughs.

However the household additionally lived lives of hedonism; Alex and each of his sons would face accusations of drug and alcohol dependancy and wild, out-of-control habits within the lead-up to the collection of crimes. Specifically, Alex’s years of extravagant dwelling led to a litany of alleged monetary crimes together with fraud, embezzlement, and a number of tried insurance coverage scams — all of it including as much as an alleged $8.5 million in theft and resulting in a number of homicides.

The Murdaughs’ energy arguably hindered the preliminary and follow-up investigations into these deaths, resulting in accusations of cover-ups and corruption. In the end, what started as separate investigations into separate crimes would knot themselves into an interconnected net of tragedy. These deaths — all dramatically totally different however all doubtlessly linked by the Murdaughs — mirrored one thing of the chaos the Murdaughs introduced with them, regardless of their stature and repute.

2015: The demise of Stephen Smith

On July 8, 2015, 19-year-old Hampton pupil Stephen Smith phoned his mom to inform her he’d run out of gasoline. Later that evening he was discovered mendacity in the midst of the street miles away from his truck. He’d died of blunt power trauma, and his physique had been “laid out in the midst of the street like a snow angel,” in accordance with his mom.

Authorities with the South Carolina Freeway Patrol initially assumed Stephen was the sufferer of a hit-and-run after leaving his truck and strolling to get gasoline, and closed the case accordingly, regardless of quite a few observations by police that urged Smith’s demise was a murder. However police additionally later famous that the scene seemed staged, and city gossip started to swirl that Smith, who was rumored to be relationship Buster Murdaugh on the time, had been the sufferer of a hate crime or that the Murdaugh brothers had a task in his demise.

In June 2021, whereas the South Carolina Legislation Enforcement Division, or SLED, was investigating the opposite murders associated to the Murdaugh household, authorities reopened the investigation into Smith’s demise, issuing a press release implying they had been one way or the other related. Thus far no prices or indictments have been issued, however the investigation continues to be open, and Smith’s mom has said that the most recent indictments into the opposite murders give her “hope that we’ll get justice.”

2018: The demise of Gloria Satterfield — and an entire lot of fraud

On February 2, 2018, the Murdaughs’ longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, suffered a extreme head damage on the Moselle property and died on February 26 of problems together with a stroke. The reason for her demise is unclear, for the reason that coroner was by no means notified and Satterfield’s physique was by no means autopsied; authorities later paradoxically described her demise as each “pure” and ensuing from an unintentional journey and fall.

Nonetheless, Satterfield’s demise may not be precisely suspicious had it not been for what got here subsequent: In line with a number of felony indictments and a number of lawsuits, Alex Murdaugh and two different males, banker Chad Westendorf and fellow legal professional Cory Fleming, then conspired to steal Satterfield’s $4.3 million insurance coverage coverage by deceptive Satterfield’s sons and diverting all of the funds to Alex himself via a phony enterprise Alex created referred to as “Forge” — an irony, since Murdaugh would later be charged with a number of counts of forgery. As a part of the rip-off, Alex satisfied Satterfield’s sons to sue him for legal responsibility in order that they might be capable to obtain a hefty legal responsibility settlement. However he then stored all the cash for himself.

The Satterfield insurance coverage rip-off was simply one in all a laundry record of situations the place Alex embezzled and defrauded cash from purchasers at his regulation agency, often by settling their instances for big sums of cash after which failing to inform them about it whereas he spent the consumer’s settlement payout on himself. He repeated the identical sample with, amongst others, Hakeem Pinckney, a university soccer participant who turned quadriplegic following an auto accident. Pinckney died in 2011, and his household by no means noticed the greater than $750,000 payout.

In Satterfield’s case, Alex evinced extra suspicious habits round her demise, together with arriving on the scene earlier than the EMTs and insisting he heard Satterfield say his canine induced her fall, contradicting her personal assertion later that she had no concept what induced it.

Satterfield’s sons had been finally in a position to recuperate greater than $6.5 million from subsequent lawsuits; in the meantime, authorities acquired permission to exhume Satterfield’s physique in June 2022 with a view to proceed the felony investigation into her demise.

2019: The demise of Mallory Seashore

Thriller nonetheless surrounds the demise of Mallory Seashore, however one factor is evident: With out the occasions of February 24, 2019, we’d not even be speaking in regards to the Murdaughs right this moment.

That night, 19-year-old Paul Murdaugh and a bunch of associates had been returning to the Murdaugh property by boat after an evening of partying. In line with almost all witnesses current, Paul insisted on piloting the boat himself regardless of being extraordinarily intoxicated. He was reportedly in a belligerent, offended state and refused to surrender the wheel, driving erratically and too quick alongside one of many space’s many twisting waterways. Sooner or later through the early morning hours, Paul crashed the boat into Archers Creek Bridge, ejecting a number of passengers from the boat, together with 19-year-old Mallory Seashore. It took per week for authorities to recuperate Seashore’s physique.

Regardless of the clear indicators of intoxication, nevertheless, authorities didn’t document his intoxication ranges on the scene; on the hospital later that evening, a number of witnesses confirmed that Paul was nonetheless drunk and uncooperative. Additionally they noticed that Alex Murdaugh arrived on the hospital and commenced to threaten and try and coerce witnesses there, encouraging them to stay to a model of occasions that cleared Paul of wrongdoing; one witness described the ambiance as “a bizarre, corny teen drama.”

Mallory Seashore’s demise led to a flurry of lawsuits and a felony investigation specializing in Paul Murdaugh. The Seashore case additionally coincided with rising monetary troubles for Alex Murdaugh and suspicion about his many fraudulent actions, and later courtroom paperwork revealed a person who appeared determined to shift blame away from his son. As an alternative, in 2019, Paul was charged with three felony counts of felony boating underneath the affect; he ultimately pleaded not responsible.

Seashore’s household sued the whole Murdaugh household, kind of, for her wrongful demise, alleging that Alex Murdaugh and his brother Randolph, and Paul Murdaugh and his brother Buster, had conspired to cowl up the reason for her demise. Group members additionally accused the Murdaughs of utilizing their energy and affect to delay the trial. Within the lead-up to the trial, at least three totally different regulation officers recused themselves due to their shut ties to the Murdaugh household.

In June 2021, Paul Murdaugh was simply days away from what would have been a pricey and costly trial for Seashore’s demise. He would by no means make it to the courtroom date.

2021: The deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh — and a bottomless fallout

In the course of the summer season of 2021, an increasing number of public curiosity grew round Paul Murdaugh’s upcoming trial. After 30 years, Maggie Murdaugh was estranged from her husband Alex, dwelling on the household’s seashore home and reportedly wanting into divorce. Alex was neck-deep in fraud schemes whose payouts had been dwindling, dealing with a pricey divorce and doubtlessly steep authorized charges for his son. He additionally claimed to be battling what he later described as a 20-year opioid dependancy.

On June 7, 2021, Alex Murdaugh reportedly lured Maggie to Moselle, prompting her to textual content a pal that Alex was performing “fishy”; “he’s as much as one thing,” she allegedly wrote to her pal. Upon arriving on the property, Maggie met her son Paul on the household’s canine kennels. Whereas they had been there, mom and son had been gunned down with two totally different weapons — Maggie with an assault-style rifle, Paul with a shotgun. Alex appeared on the scene shortly afterward and referred to as 911 to report the deaths. An post-mortem later confirmed each died of a number of gunshot wounds.

The double murder of the Murdaughs induced Alex Murdaugh’s home of playing cards to break down. He instantly fell underneath suspicion for the murders, and the case made nationwide headlines. Three days after the murders, his father, Randolph III, died. On September 3, 2021, Murdaugh resigned from the household’s regulation agency after the agency confronted him over his years of suspected embezzlement. The agency later sued him, and regulation enforcement opened its personal felony investigation into the alleged fraud.

The next day, on September 4, 2021, Alex referred to as 911 to report an odd roadside incident through which he claimed to have blown a tire. When a stranger stopped to assist him, Alex reported, they shot him within the head as a substitute. Although somebody clearly shot and grazed Alex within the head, even witnesses on the scene didn’t consider his story; “it sort of appears like a setup, so we didn’t cease,” one 911 caller reported.

On September 14, Alex gave up the actual plot: He’d meant to have a pal shoot and kill him in order that his surviving son, Buster, may obtain Alex’s $10 million life insurance coverage payout. Authorities promptly arrested Murdaugh and his confederate, Alex’s alleged drug provider and former consumer Curtis Smith, charging Smith with assisted suicide and each males with conspiracy to commit insurance coverage fraud. Alex’s regulation license was instantly suspended, and he was later disbarred.

Alex posted bond and checked himself into a drug rehab heart, solely to be arrested for felony fraud prices within the Satterfield case when he emerged. This time, his bail was denied and his property had been frozen.

By now, the case was a nationwide sensation making common mainstream headlines — largely thanks to at least one native journalist. Mandy Matney had allegedly alienated her former information outlet by pursuing the Murdaugh case in additional depth than her editors needed. In 2020, she joined the South Carolina web site FITSNews.com simply so she may cowl the Murdaughs. Days after the murders of Maggie and Paul, Matney and FITS launched the Murdaugh Murders podcast, which broke down the voluminous case piece by piece — beginning with what she dubbed “South Carolina’s Chappaquiddick.”

The podcast was so profitable it reportedly ranked among the many world’s prime podcasts in 2021; it’s at present being developed as a real crime drama collection for a division of Common. HBO Max and Netflix every produced true crime documentary collection in regards to the case. The extra consideration Matney drew to the case, the extra investigators appeared to ramp up their very own work. Between November 2021 and July 2022, dozens of indictments had been doled out in opposition to Alex Murdaugh and his co-conspirators. Group accusations leveled in opposition to the household for abusing its affect continued too, as yet one more solicitor recused himself from the case, and proof allegedly connecting Alex to the double murders was suppressed from the general public. “You’ll know a Murdaugh did it if nobody is arrested,” ran one apocryphal Fb remark.

On July 14, 2022, nevertheless, Alex Murdaugh was indicted for the double murder of his spouse and son. “Immediately is yet another step in an extended course of for justice for Maggie and Paul,” stated Mark Keel, head of South Carolina’s State Legislation Enforcement Division.

However Alex Murdaugh apparently didn’t intend to make the method straightforward. On July 20, 2022, he pleaded not responsible, within the first of many controversial courtroom proceedings earlier than the trial, which lastly started on January 23, 2023. With the nationwide media wanting on, the courtroom spectacle that unfolded over the following six weeks gave onlookers a glimpse into what that century of collected energy has actually achieved: Choose Newman needed to order the removing of a portrait of Murdaugh’s grandfather from the courthouse with a view to guarantee a good trial. Would Murdaugh, together with his high-powered state senator legal professional, be capable to persuade a jury of his innocence? What would that say about South Carolina’s small-town political panorama?

A lot of the proof the prosecution offered at trial was circumstantial, nevertheless it was usually dramatic and compelling. And it kicked off with a game-changing reveal from the prosecution: A never-before-seen cellphone video from Paul’s telephone shortly earlier than the murders. Whereas on the kennels, Paul took a video of himself enjoying with one of many canine. Within the background, you may clearly hear two extra voices — one in all them seems to be Maggie saying, “He’s bought a fowl in his mouth!” referring to Paul’s canine, Bubba. The opposite voice, calling, “C’mere, Bubba!” within the background, is clearly that of Alex Murdaugh.

Prosecutors alleged that this video, which was filmed on Paul’s telephone at 8:44 pm, passed off roughly 5 minutes earlier than the shootings, based mostly on when Paul and Maggie stopped their telephones and replying to texts. That might place Alex firmly on the scene earlier than the murders, contradicting his model of the timeline. In one other dramatic second, Alex Murdaugh unexpectedly took the stand in his personal protection and admitted that his earlier longstanding declare he hadn’t been on the kennels was a lie. As an alternative, he claimed, he had solely been down on the kennels for just a few moments earlier than returning to the home simply earlier than Maggie and Paul had been murdered.

It was a flimsy, clear try and justify an online of lies, and the jury noticed via it: On March 2, 2023, after barely two hours of deliberation, they discovered Murdaugh responsible. Circuit courtroom Choose Clifton Newman dressed down Murdaugh for his fall from grace, calling out his ongoing “duplicitous conduct.”

“Amazingly, to have you ever come and testify that it was simply one other bizarre day,” he stated, referring to the day of the murders, when every thing in Murdaugh’s life was collapsing. “Not credible. Not plausible.”

“You’ll be able to persuade your self about it,” Newman continued, “however clearly you have got the shortcoming to persuade anybody else. If you happen to made any such arguments as a lawyer, you’ll lose each case like that — instances you’ll by no means have a possibility to argue anymore, besides maybe your personal, as you sit within the Division of Corrections.”

Choose Newman then sentenced Murdaugh to 2 consecutive life sentences. Murdaugh’s sentence begins instantly on the Kirkland Correctional Establishment, a maximum-security jail in Columbia, South Carolina.

The murders surrounding the Murdaugh household appear to have revealed a justice system that turned a blind eye whereas Alex Murdaugh dedicated felonies for years — to say nothing of homicide. For therefore lengthy, the Murdaughs had been allowed to rule their nook of the world as a result of they knew that system in a means most individuals don’t, whilst their train of these privileges drove them and people round them to break. Questions nonetheless stay concerning the deaths of Stephen Smith and Gloria Satterfield, together with the extent and full nature of Alex Murdaugh’s lengthy record of fraudulent actions. Although the murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh have lastly seen a grim decision, they’re only one facet of a case which will by no means be absolutely resolved. Murdaugh was scheduled to start trial on November 27 for his many monetary crimes; his last-minute responsible plea avoids that, but additionally doubtless signifies that most of the sordid particulars of his actions previous to the murders could by no means be broadly identified.

Replace, November 17, 2023, 2:25 pm ET: This story was initially printed on August 2, 2022, and has been up to date a number of occasions with new particulars in regards to the trial and Murdaugh’s most up-to-date responsible plea.