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Tag: Alex Murdaugh

  • Alex Murdaugh Hit With New Federal Fees After Homicide Conviction

    Alex Murdaugh, the disbarred South Carolina legal professional convicted this March of murdering his spouse and son in June 2021, has been indicted on 22 counts of federal fraud and cash laundering, together with fees of defrauding his past due housekeeper’s circle of relatives after her dying in February 2018.

    The brand new fraud fees introduced on Wednesday come along with a staggering 20 indictments containing 101 fees issued by way of the state of South Carolina towards Murdaugh for allegedly defrauding other people of just about $9 million. The state fees vary from breach of consider to forgery, cash laundering and tax evasion.

    The costs served as key proof in Murdaugh’s extensively watched homicide trial; prosecutors argued that as other people as regards to him found out the level of his alleged schemes, he killed them to garner sympathy for himself and purchase time to hide up his misdealings.

    Alex Murdaugh gives testimony during his murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, on Feb. 23, 2023.
    Alex Murdaugh offers testimony all over his homicide trial on the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, on Feb. 23, 2023.

    Murdaugh, a private damage legal professional, was once first arrested in October 2021 for allegedly misappropriating insurance coverage price range supposed for the circle of relatives of housekeeper Gloria Satterfield after her deadly “commute and fall” twist of fate at his house. (The South Carolina Regulation Enforcement Department, or SLED, introduced in September 2021 that it will be investigating Satterfield’s dying, and in June 2022 stated it will exhume her stays, which has now not but passed off.)

    In December 2021, Murdaugh agreed to a $4.3 million agreement with the Satterfields, apologizing “for his monetary transgressions dedicated in reference to the wrongful dying agreement price range recovered in reference to the dying of Gloria Satterfield and the ache it has brought about.”

    Murdaugh was once in prison on fraud and different fees when he was once charged in July 2022 with killing Maggie and Paul Murdaugh in June 2021. After a long trial, he was once convicted in their murders in March and is serving a lifestyles sentence. He’s lately interesting the decision.

    The federal indictment alleges that Murdaugh, along with siphoning price range from the Satterfield agreement, schemed to procure cash and belongings from his private damage purchasers by way of redirecting their agreement price range to himself, conspiring together with his banker to dedicate twine and financial institution fraud, and making a phony checking account during which he funneled the non-public damage settlements.

    In a Might 1 submitting, Murdaugh stated he “invented” the tale that his circle of relatives’s canine had brought about the 57-year-old Satterfield to fall at the steps “to drive his insurers to make a agreement fee.” If the insurer “most effective tried to [pay the Satterfield estate because] it was once the sufferer of fraud,” then somebody who won the cash can be required to go back it, the submitting states.

    Murdaugh was once a part of a distinguished prison circle of relatives that wielded extraordinary energy and affect of their small South Carolina neighborhood and a onetime prosecutor himself. “All judges, all judges within the state, both knew him or knew of him,” Pass judgement on Clifton Newman stated after the homicide trial.

    “Agree with in our prison machine starts with consider in its legal professionals,” U.S. Legal professional Adair F. Boroughs stated in a commentary on Wednesday. “South Carolinians flip to legal professionals when they’re at their maximum inclined, and in our state, those that abuse the general public’s consider and enrich themselves by way of fraud, robbery, and self-dealing might be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the legislation.”

    Murdaugh’s legal professionals Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin stated he has been cooperating with government.

    “Alex has been cooperating with the USA Lawyers’ Workplace and federal businesses of their investigation of a wide vary of actions,” their commentary stated. “We wait for that the costs introduced nowadays might be temporarily resolved and not using a trial.”

  • Pass judgement on In Alex Murdaugh Trial Speaks Out For First Time Publish-Sentencing

    The pass judgement on who presided over Alex Murdaugh’s double homicide trial has spoken out publicly in regards to the case for the primary time, pronouncing he has “surely” that Murdaugh liked his circle of relatives in spite of committing “an unforgivable, impossible crime.”

    “In my thoughts, surely he liked his circle of relatives. I don’t imagine that he hated his spouse, and surely, I don’t imagine that he didn’t love his son, however he dedicated an unforgivable, impossible crime, and there’s no manner he’ll be capable to sleep peacefully given the ones information,” Pass judgement on Clifton Newman informed a panel at Cleveland State College Faculty of Legislation on Tuesday.

    Murdaugh, 54, used to be sentenced to lifestyles in jail previous this month for murdering his spouse, Maggie, 52, and son, Paul, 22. The six-week trial in South Carolina captured national consideration and used to be the topic of a lot of podcasts and TV documentaries because of the Murdaugh circle of relatives’s prison energy within the area.

    Judge Clifton Newman presides over Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, on Jan. 26, 2023.
    Pass judgement on Clifton Newman presides over Alex Murdaugh’s double homicide trial on the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, on Jan. 26, 2023.

    Grace Beahm Alford/The Publish and Courier by means of AP, Pool

    “All judges, all judges within the state, both knew him or knew of him,” Newman mentioned of Murdaugh, who used to be a fourth-generation lawyer prior to his disbarment. “It didn’t have an effect on me so far as rendering the sentence that I did.”

    Newman, who used to be lightheartedly offered at his former regulation college as “the best-known pass judgement on on this planet presently,” mentioned he used to be shocked by way of the quantity of consideration the trial had won.

    “I’ve won letters from in every single place the sector about this situation. It’s actually been, in point of fact been superb,” he mentioned.

    Although Newman mentioned he used to be nonetheless not able to talk freely in regards to the case, and in particular about his opinion of it, he pointed to a few interviews that a number of jurors have given within the days later on.

    Some jurors mentioned that they didn’t see authentic tears from Murdaugh, who dramatically wept at the stand whilst pleading innocence, and that his testimony confirmed “that he couldn’t be depended on with anything else that he mentioned, or did,” mentioned Newman.

    “Authentic regret is normally impactful,” the pass judgement on later mentioned when requested about defendants taking the stand in their very own protection.

    Alex Murdaugh appears at his sentencing hearing on March 3. The former attorney was sentenced to life in prison after his double murder conviction.
    Alex Murdaugh seems at his sentencing listening to on March 3. The previous lawyer used to be sentenced to lifestyles in jail after his double homicide conviction.

    Murdaugh’s lawyers had steered him to not testify, however Murdaugh felt like he wanted to take a look at to give an explanation for some questions that arose all over the trial, Newman mentioned.

    One main bombshell that emerged all over Murdaugh’s testimony used to be his admission at the stand that he had lied to investigators about his whereabouts when his spouse and son had been shot to loss of life in 2021. Murdaugh had prior to now claimed he used to be by no means on the canine kennels the place the 2 had been killed, however later mentioned he had lied about this as a result of he used to be on medication and paranoid.

    Newman mentioned that something from the trial that has endured to resonate with him is how unpredictable persons are.

    “It’s onerous to are expecting what a human would possibly do, in particular after they’re thinking about medication. That’s only a truth all of us must take care of,” he mentioned.

    As for the way the case concluded, Newman, who has presided over masses of trials, mentioned he wasn’t shocked that the jury reached a verdict in simply 3 hours, pronouncing “that’s about customary, so far as I’m involved.”

    The 12 jurors ― whittled down from an preliminary pool of 750 attainable jurors in simply 3 days ― have been introduced with greater than 800 items of proof and greater than 75 witnesses, Newman defined. After weeks at trial, the pass judgement on mentioned, he believes they wouldn’t need or wish to evaluate the entire proof once more.

    What Newman used to be shocked by way of, he mentioned, used to be how temporarily Murdaugh used to be sentenced, with lawyers for the protection and prosecution pronouncing they’d be able to head the morning after his conviction. The lawyers additionally didn’t request to make any statements or provide anything else prior to Newman introduced his sentence.

    The entire legal professionals within the case lived in different places and needed to shuttle to the trial, so “I feel they had been all able to more or less get the case over with,” he mentioned.

    With the lawyers no longer wishing to make statements, Newman mentioned he requested Murdaugh if he had one thing to mention.

    “He’s status prior to me to be sentenced, having been convicted of a double homicide, and principally, he informed me he had not anything to mention, both, rather then, ‘It wasn’t me,’” Newman mentioned.

    Murdaugh used to be sentenced to 2 consecutive lifestyles phrases for the murders. His legal professionals have filed a realize of attraction.

  • Buster Murdaugh Denies ‘Vicious Rumors’ Of Involvement In Youngster’s 2015 Demise

    Alex Murdaugh’s son Buster issued a observation Monday denying any involvement within the dying of a 19-year-old guy whose frame used to be discovered close to the circle of relatives’s South Carolina searching house in 2015.

    The 26-year-old, in a observation launched through a circle of relatives lawyer, mentioned he has been pressured and focused over claims that he’s tied to Stephen Smith’s dying following his mom and brother’s capturing deaths in 2021. He requested for peace as he copes together with his father’s contemporary existence sentence for his or her murders, and known as the claims “baseless” and “vicious.”

    “I’ve attempted my very best to forget about the vicious rumors about my involvement in Stephen Smith’s tragic dying that proceed to be revealed within the media as I grieve over the brutal murders of my mom and brother. I like them such a lot and pass over them extraordinarily,” he mentioned.

    “I haven’t spoken up till now as a result of I wish to are living in personal whilst I take care of their deaths and my father’s incarceration,” he persisted. “I unequivocally deny any involvement in his dying, and my center is going out to the Smith circle of relatives.”

    In a while after Smith’s dying, rumors circulated that the Murdaugh circle of relatives used to be by hook or by crook related, the Augusta Chronicle and different native information shops reported. TV documentaries that emerged after the Murdaugh killings additionally steered Buster Murdaugh used to be all for Smith’s dying, despite the fact that government have now not named any suspects within the incident.

    Stephen Smith, 19, was found dead in a South Carolina road in 2015. His mother does not believe he was the victim of a hit-and-run and hopes exhuming his body for an independent autopsy could determine his actual cause of death.
    Stephen Smith, 19, used to be discovered useless in a South Carolina highway in 2015. His mom does now not consider he used to be the sufferer of a hit-and-run and hopes exhuming his frame for an impartial post-mortem may just resolve his exact explanation for dying.

    In June of 2021, in a while after the capturing deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, the South Carolina Legislation Enforcement Department mentioned it used to be opening its personal investigation into Smith’s dying because of new knowledge it had accumulated whilst investigating the Murdaugh deaths. Prior media reviews have misstated that the department used to be reopening its investigation however the department didn’t open a case till that yr, a consultant instructed HuffPost.

    A South Carolina Legislation Enforcement Department spokesperson mentioned Sunday that the department has made growth investigating Smith’s dying. They didn’t supply any more information, alternatively, mentioning “this investigation stays energetic and ongoing.”

    Smith’s mom introduced previous this month her intent to exhume her son’s frame for an impartial post-mortem. The teenager have been categorized as a hit-and-run sufferer however his circle of relatives disputes this.

    “We want a brand new, independent have a look at his frame and a correct choice of his explanation for dying in line with information. There used to be no particles within the highway, and his accidents weren’t in keeping with a hit-and-run,” reads a fundraiser not too long ago arrange through Smith’s mom to assist pay for the post-mortem.

  • Youngster’s Frame To Be Exhumed In Wake Of Alex Murdaugh Murders, Circle of relatives Says

    The mummy of a 19-year-old who used to be mysteriously discovered lifeless on a South Carolina highway in 2015 says she intends to have his frame exhumed, with the announcement following state police officers reopening its investigation into his loss of life within the wake of the Alex Murdaugh murders.

    Stephen Smith’s mom introduced her intent to exhume her son’s frame for additional exam in a GoFundMe account created previous this month.

    “We want a brand new, independent take a look at his frame and a correct resolution of his reason for loss of life in response to details. There used to be no particles within the highway, and his accidents weren’t in step with a hit-and-run,” states the fundraising web page, which as of Sunday had raised just about greater than $46,000 over its preliminary purpose.

    The verdict follows the South Carolina Legislation Enforcement Department (SLED) pronouncing in 2021 that it could reopen its investigation into Smith’s loss of life because of new data it had accumulated whilst investigating the double homicide of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh that very same 12 months.

    The mummy and son had been discovered fatally shot in June of 2021 on their Colleton County searching assets, no longer some distance from the place Smith’s frame used to be discovered six years previous in Hampton County. The circle of relatives’s outstanding patriarch, Alex Murdaugh, used to be convicted within the murders remaining month.

    SLED, which failed to in an instant reply to HuffPost’s request for remark Sunday, declined to offer element about its determination when reached via CNN.

    “SLED has made development within the loss of life investigation of Stephen Smith,” the company mentioned. “Alternatively this investigation stays lively and ongoing.”

    Smith used to be discovered mendacity in a highway on July 8, 2015, with blunt power trauma to his head. He used to be roughly 3 miles from his automotive, which used to be discovered deserted with its gasoline tank open, government mentioned on the time.

    First responders on the scene concept his head harm may well be from a conceivable gunshot wound, however the coroner’s workplace in the end dominated his loss of life a hit-and-run, regardless of a couple of investigators disregarding this idea, in keeping with copies in their testimony bought via Spartanburg station WSPA.

    “I noticed no automobile particles, skid marks, or accidents in step with any individual being struck via a automobile,” wrote one investigator, in keeping with the station. “After consulting with the [Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team], we see no proof to signify the sufferer used to be struck via a automobile.”

    For years after his loss of life, pointers additionally got here in that connected Smith to the Murdaugh circle of relatives, the Greenville Information reported.

    Smith’s mom, Sandy Smith, didn’t in an instant reply to a request for remark.

  • Alex Murdaugh Sentenced In Homicide Of Spouse And Son

    Alex Murdaugh was once sentenced to 2 consecutive lifestyles phrases in jail on Friday, an afternoon after the once-prominent lawyer was once discovered to blame of murdering his spouse and son.

    Pass judgement on Clifton Newman passed down the ruling after a jury convicted Murdaugh on two counts of homicide for capturing his spouse, Maggie, and son Paul in 2021 on the circle of relatives’s looking belongings in Islandton, South Carolina. Prosecutors mentioned Murdaugh killed his members of the family in an try to achieve sympathy and stay a bevy of monetary crimes from being uncovered.

    Murdaugh spoke in brief earlier than his sentencing, pronouncing, “I’m blameless. I might by no means harm my spouse Maggie, and I might by no means harm my son [Paul].”

    He had maintained his innocence all over the trial, however prosecutors confirmed he had lied about being on the scene of the crime simply mins earlier than his spouse and son have been killed. Murdaugh admitted he lied about being at his property’s canine kennels, the place the shootings happened, however mentioned he left the pair and returned to search out them useless.

    The jury rejected that declare, attaining a to blame verdict on each counts of homicide and two counts of possessing a dangerous weapon throughout the fee of a violent crime.

    The six-week trial rocked the state. The tough Murdaugh circle of relatives has been a prison dynasty within the Deep South for generations, with individuals controlling a regional prosecutor’s workplace for greater than 80 years and working an impressive regulation company within the house.

    “Nowadays’s verdict proves that no person, no person — regardless of who you might be in society — is above the regulation,” South Carolina Legal professional Common Alan Wilson mentioned after the decision was once delivered Thursday.

    The minimal sentence for homicide in South Carolina is 30 years in jail. Prosecutors had mentioned they’d search a sentence of lifestyles in jail with out the opportunity of parole earlier than Newman’s resolution was once rendered.

    Murdaugh can attraction the ruling.

    He’s nonetheless expecting trial for a sequence of monetary crimes he admitted to whilst at the stand in his homicide case, in addition to fees of insurance coverage fraud, tax evasion and cash laundering.

    Murdaugh was once disbarred closing summer season. Prosecutors have charged him with stealing just about $9 million.

    CORRECTION: A prior model of this tale mentioned Murdaugh was once sentenced to concurrent phrases; the phrases are consecutive.

  • Insufficient Investigation? Takeaways From The Alex Murdaugh Homicide Trial

    Investigators like to mention the crime scene at a killing tells the tale despite the fact that nobody else does.

    Within the double homicide trial of disgraced South Carolina legal professional Alex Murdaugh, his protection legal professionals need jurors to imagine the crime scene can’t inform them a lot concerning the deaths of his spouse and son as a result of state brokers did a deficient task investigating.

    Murdaugh, 54, is accused of killing his spouse, Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, at kennels close to their house on June 7, 2021, because the once-prominent legal professional’s occupation and funds have been crumbling. Murdaugh has denied any position within the deadly shootings. He faces 30 years to lifestyles if convicted.

    Listed here are some key takeaways from the 61 prosecution and 11 protection witnesses known as up to now within the five-week trial, together with Murdaugh himself.

    The 54-year-old attorney is standing trial on two counts of murder in the shootings of his wife and son at their Colleton County, S.C., home and hunting lodge on June 7, 2021.
    The 54-year-old legal professional is status trial on two counts of homicide within the shootings of his spouse and son at their Colleton County, S.C., house and searching resort on June 7, 2021.

    The protection has known as mavens who stated investigators didn’t mud for fingerprints, gather and check blood, or {photograph} proof with the angles or readability had to find out about it correctly later.

    The primary officer arrived on the rural Colleton County property 20 mins after Murdaugh known as 911 when he returned house from visiting his ill mom. Nearly instantly, the native sheriff discovered he was once coping with somebody whose circle of relatives ruled the felony machine in neighboring Hampton County for generations and became the investigation over to the State Regulation Enforcement Department.

    It took hours for brokers from around the state to get deep into the South Carolina Lowcountry. Right through that point, greater than a dozen friends and family walked across the scene, comforting Murdaugh. The our bodies of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh have been coated with a sheet, which will take in fluid, as an alternative of a tarp. Then the sheet wasn’t stored, which means conceivable hair or DNA from a killer may have been misplaced. Intermittent rain fell and the runoff from the kennel roof fell on Paul Murdaugh’s coated frame.

    “It’s a criminal offense scene. You don’t need water dripping everywhere. However extra importantly, I believed it was once lovely disrespectful,” Murdaugh’s former regulation spouse Mark Ball testified.

    Buster Murdaugh, the son of defendant Alex Murdaugh, listens to his father testify during his murder trial on Friday.
    Buster Murdaugh, the son of defendant Alex Murdaugh, listens to his father testify right through his homicide trial on Friday.

    When state brokers arrived, they despatched Murdaugh and his entourage to the house. Witnesses testified it hadn’t been looked for guns, bloody garments and different proof and even checked to look if a suspect was once hiding inside of.

    Prosecutors have little direct proof of Murdaugh’s guilt. The guns used within the killings have now not been discovered. There’s no blood-spattered garments or surveillance video.

    Prosecutor John Meadors instructed one of the vital mavens that the investigators did the most efficient they may underneath the instances.

    “You’re being paid to return in right here and say they did a foul task,” Meadors stated.

    He was once the 72nd witness of the five-week trial. However everybody perked up Thursday when Alex Murdaugh headed to the witness stand.

    His protection staff wasted no time. Their first questions have been whether or not he killed his spouse or son.

    “I didn’t kill Maggie, and I didn’t kill Paul. I might by no means harm Maggie, and I might by no means harm Paul — ever — underneath any instances,” Murdaugh stated.

    Murdaugh admitted he lied for the 20 months when he instructed police, his circle of relatives and somebody else who requested that he was once now not on the kennels sooner than he discovered the our bodies of his spouse and son there. A video on his son’s iPhone, shot mins sooner than prosecutors suppose the killings took place, recorded Alex Murdaugh’s voice. It took state brokers greater than a 12 months to hack into the telephone and in finding it.

    In cross-examination, Murdaugh admitted he stole from shoppers and his regulation company, most likely sealing his destiny for most of the 100 different fees he faces starting from robbery to insurance coverage fraud to tax evasion.

    “I took cash that wasn’t mine. And I shouldn’t have completed it. I hate the truth that I did it. I’m embarrassed through it. I’m embarrassed for my son. I’m embarrassed for my circle of relatives,” Murdaugh stated.

    Out of doors of Murdaugh and his circle of relatives, no possible witness has piqued the pastime of trial watchers like Curtis “Eddie” Smith.

    “Cousin Eddie,” as many have taken to calling him, was once the individual Murdaugh stated he known as when he sought after somebody to kill him 3 months after the deaths of his spouse and son.

    The deadly shot handiest grazed Murdaugh’s head. Smith instructed journalists that the gun fired as they wrestled over the weapon and if he had shot deliberately at Murdaugh, he wouldn’t have overlooked.

    Smith and Murdaugh met a couple of decade in the past when Smith wanted a attorney for a employees’ reimbursement case. Investigators stated they ran a drug and cash laundering ring in conjunction with Smith cashing assessments to assist Murdaugh disguise cash he was once stealing from shoppers.

    Finally, each prosecutors and protection legal professionals seem to have determined Smith may harm their circumstances up to assist them.

    Protection legal professional Dick Harpootlian stated Smith had six other explanations for capturing Murdaugh “and another data you ask him about.”

    However previous this month as prosecutors and Harpootlian mentioned with the pass judgement on whether or not Smith would testify, the feisty protection legal professional lamented Smith will not be known as.

    “The cross-examination of Mr. Smith is one thing I’m having a look ahead to,” Harpootlian stated.

  • Right here’s How The Alex Murdaugh Homicide Trial Is Going, 2 Weeks In

    Two weeks into the double homicide trial of South Carolina legal professional Alex Murdaugh, prosecutors haven’t introduced any direct proof that he killed his spouse and son at their house in June 2021.

    There is not any confession, no surveillance digital camera pictures, no recording of the sufferers’ ultimate moments.

    If discovered in charge of murdering his spouse, Maggie, 52, and their son, Paul, 22, Murdaugh faces 30 years to existence in jail with out parole. The disgraced attorney, who additionally faces about 100 different fees starting from stealing cash from shoppers to insurance coverage fraud, has adamantly denied fatally taking pictures his spouse and son.

    Murdaugh’s attorneys mentioned he was once visiting his in poor health mom at the evening of the murders and police wrongly taken with him from the beginning, ignoring the chance that any one else killed them.

    HOW ARE PROSECUTORS MAKING THEIR CASE?

    Prosecutors are seeking to construct a mountain of circumstantial proof so top it eliminates any cheap doubt with jurors that Murdaugh is in charge.

    Murdaugh becomes emotional after seeing his family in the courtroom during opening statements Wednesday.
    Murdaugh turns into emotional after seeing his circle of relatives within the court docket all over opening statements Wednesday.

    In seven days of testimony, prosecutors have introduced crime scene images, weapons gathered from Murdaugh’s house, cellular phone knowledge and a video of Murdaugh dressed in other garments lower than 3 hours earlier than the time that he mentioned he came upon the our bodies at their Colleton County house.

    They’ve additionally proven a video the son took 5 mins earlier than the sufferers unexpectedly stopped the use of their cell phones through which circle of relatives pals say they may be able to listen the voices of all 3 Murdaughs. Alex Murdaugh informed investigators early within the case that he wasn’t there.

    They contend Murdaugh shot the 2 to distract consideration from his different crimes, for which he’s watching for trial.

    HOW IMPORTANT IS THE CRIME SCENE EVIDENCE?

    The proof on the scene is essential to unraveling what came about earlier than Maggie and Paul Murdaugh had been discovered shot with a minimum of one bullet to the pinnacle by means of two other weapons.

    State brokers drove two hours from Columbia to swarm the Murdaugh house the evening of the killings, taking pictures of blood spots, shoe prints and guns casings. They gathered weapons, examined Murdaugh’s arms for gunshot residue and took DNA swabs.

    “The crime scene is more or less a short lived factor. As soon as the crime scene has processed, you’ll’t return to it. So … you in point of fact attempt to duvet completely the entirety whilst you’re there,” mentioned Kenneth Moses, a forensic scientist who led the crime scene investigations unit on the San Francisco Police Division and now works as a specialist, most commonly for legal defendants.

    However there have been issues that weren’t carried out. In cross-examination, brokers have mentioned they didn’t take a look at bathe and sink drains for blood. They didn’t seek the house of Murdaugh’s mom for months despite the fact that that’s the place he was once earlier than he mentioned he discovered the our bodies. And so they didn’t keep tire tracks.

    Protection attorneys are in search of a mistake, or possible mistake, that can resonate with a jury, Moses mentioned.

    It’s “other than police, who don’t care about juries in any respect. They’re having a look to make an arrest,” Moses mentioned.

    WHAT ABOUT CELLPHONE EVIDENCE?

    Murdaugh wasn’t charged with homicide till 13 months after the killings. Thru testimony, in spite of everything getting knowledge from Paul Murdaugh’s telephone seems to be a key construction round that point.

    Brokers testified they couldn’t pull off the information off Paul Murdaugh’s telephone till advances in generation were given previous the protection options Apple places on iPhones.

    The telephone contained a 50-second video Paul Murdaugh took about 8:45 p.m. close to the canine kennels had been each our bodies had been discovered. His pals testified they heard all 3 Murdaughs’ voices. Alex Murdaugh informed police a minimum of two times he was once now not on the kennels that evening.

    However cellular phone proof seems to have helped the protection, too.

    Alex Murdaugh became his cellular phone over to investigators and proof has it at his SUV nonetheless parked on the area on the similar time his spouse’s cellular phone was once being thrown at the facet of the street a half-mile (800 meters) from the valuables, protection attorneys mentioned.

    Each side are seeking to get their model of Murdaugh, who comes from a circle of relatives that’s well known in native judicial circles, earlier than the jury.

    The protection needs to painting a loving circle of relatives guy and has requested any witness who knew the Murdaughs about their relationships. All have mentioned Murdaugh and his spouse seemed satisfied in combination and Alex Murdaugh was once a doting father.

    Prosecutors are seeking to display an legal professional dwelling a double existence who was once so scared it might be came upon he stole thousands and thousands of greenbacks that he dedicated the killings to check out to shop for time to hide up his different crimes. They requested each and every officer who encountered Murdaugh after he discovered the our bodies of his spouse or son if he was once crying and all mentioned he turns out disenchanted and distraught, however and not using a tears.

    WHAT DOES THE DEFENSE SAY?

    Protection attorney Dick Harpootlian contends prosecutors incorrectly locked in on Murdaugh’s guilt from the beginning and feature attempted to jam bits of proof that may be defined away or depart an incomplete image right into a tale that frames the fallacious guy.

    “There’s no direct proof. There’s no eyewitnesses. There’s not anything on digital camera. There’s no fingerprints. There’s no forensics tying him to the crime. None,” Harpootlian mentioned.

    Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia contributed to this document.

  • South Carolina Legal professional Alex Murdaugh Indicted For Spouse And Son’s Homicide

    Alex Murdaugh, the not too long ago disbarred South Carolina lawyer whose once-powerful felony dynasty in his house state has been all of a sudden marred through drug, fraud and cash laundering fees in contemporary months, has now been indicted for the homicide of his spouse and son.

    A Colleton County grand jury indicted Murdaugh on Thursday on fees of 2 counts of homicide and two counts of ownership of a weapon all over the fee of a violent crime within the deaths of his spouse, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul Murdaugh.

    The indictment comes greater than a yr after the fourth-generation attorney’s spouse and son have been mysteriously discovered shot a couple of occasions out of doors at their searching property close to Islandton, more or less 60 miles west of Charleston.

    It used to be Alex Murdaugh who used to be the only to name 911 in a panic after claiming to have discovered his spouse and son’s our bodies on June 7, 2021, close to the canine kennels at the circle of relatives’s secluded assets. The Murdaugh circle of relatives introduced a $100,000 praise for info resulting in the killer’s conviction. Alex Murdaugh’s legal professionals have maintained his innocence.

    However because the homicide investigation spread out, questions emerged in regards to the Murdaugh circle of relatives’s dealings of their group.

    The gates near Alex Murdaugh's home in Islandton, S.C., are seen following last year's shooting deaths of his wife and son at the property,
    The gates close to Alex Murdaugh’s house in Islandton, S.C., are noticed following final yr’s taking pictures deaths of his spouse and son on the assets,

    On the time of the taking pictures, Paul Murdaugh used to be dealing with a boating underneath the affect fee associated with a 2019 coincidence that killed a 19-year-old girl. The tragedy ended in public hypothesis in regards to the Murdaugh circle of relatives’s ties to legislation enforcement, with legal professionals for the sufferers’ households expressing issues of proof going lacking and allegations that the Murdaugh circle of relatives suggested the sufferers to not cooperate with legislation enforcement.

    State police have additionally since reopened an unsolved 2015 hit-and-run demise that the sufferer’s mom has stated she idea Paul Murdaugh can have been interested by, The Related Press reported.

    Issues took a brand new flip in September of final yr when Alex Murdaugh claimed to have survived a failed homicide try whilst converting a tire at the facet of the street.

    Curtis Edward Smith allegedly shot Alex Murdaugh so that Murdaugh's surviving son, Richard, could collect a $10 million life insurance policy. Smith's shot only grazed Murdaugh's head, police said.
    Curtis Edward Smith allegedly shot Alex Murdaugh in order that Murdaugh’s surviving son, Richard, may just acquire a $10 million existence insurance coverage. Smith’s shot most effective grazed Murdaugh’s head, police stated.

    State police stated he suffered a grazed bullet to the top through a person he had paid to kill him as a part of a $10 million insurance coverage scheme that would receive advantages his elder son. That guy, Curtis Smith, used to be arrested on a couple of fees and later moreover accused of trafficking medication with Alex Murdaugh.

    A couple of days after that taking pictures incident, Alex Murdaugh introduced that he used to be stepping down from his legislation company and getting into rehab for an opioid habit. When he left that facility in October, he used to be promptly arrested for allegedly stealing tens of millions of bucks in insurance coverage bills from the circle of relatives of his past due housekeeper.

    Greater than 80 fees have since been filed in opposition to Alex Murdaugh, together with for the alleged robbery of tens of millions from his purchasers and their households.