March 3, 2023 Alex Murdaugh sentenced to life in prison | CNN (2024)

Alex Murdaugh was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders of hiswife and grown son, concluding a brutal chapter in the story of the once-influential South Carolina lawyer.

But the tangled tale isn’t over. Here are some of the outstanding issues.

Allegations of financial wrongdoing:

The Satterfield family:

Family housekeeper Gloria Satterfield died in February 2018 in what was described as a “trip and fall accident” at the Murdaugh home, according to attorney Eric Bland, who is representing her estate. After Satterfield’s death, Murdaugh coordinated with her family to sue himself in order to seek an insurance settlement, according to investigators.

In September 2021, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division announces it is opening a criminal investigation into her death and the handling of her estate.

The children of Satterfield filed a motion for Murdaugh’s arrest and detention until the money he allegedly embezzled from her estate is returned. The estate has not received any of the money owed as the result of a 2018 civil settlement, the estate’s attorney says.

Murdaugh was arrested in October 2021 on suspicion of misappropriating settlement funds in connection with Satterfield’s death and agreed to a $4.3 million settlementwith the family in December 2021, according to Bland.

The fatal boat crash:

Murdaugh’s late son Paul was allegedly the driver of the boat that crashed in February 2019, killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach. At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh was facing charges of boating under the influence, causing great bodily harm and causing death. He pleaded not guilty, and court records show the charges were dropped after his death.

However, Alex Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh’s estate are still defendants in an ongoing wrongful death lawsuit filed by Beach’s family in 2019, according to court records.

Stephen Smith:

In June 2021, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) announced it was reopening an investigation into the death of 19-year-old Stephen Smith, whose body was found in the middle of a Hampton County road on July 8, 2015.

Though authorities have not announced a connection between Smith’s death and the Murdaugh family, SLED said it was reopening an investigation based on information gathered while investigating the double homicide of Margaret and Paul Murdaugh.

SLED has not specified what that information was and his death remains unsolved.

CNN’s Christina Maxouris, Maria Cartaya, Dianne Gallagher,Amir VeraandEric Levenson contributed to this report.

In an interview with CNN, defense attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin shared their thoughts on the proceeding that lasted nearly six weeks and ended in a double murder conviction for their client, Alex Murdaugh.

Harpootlian said, “I think he (Murdaugh) expected it … After the financial crimes, we were hoping for mistrial, you know, a hung jury. That was the best we could do,” when asked about his client after the unanimous verdict.

“I think he (Murdaugh) was, he was realistic about it, he’s obviously not happy with it, but he believes as we do, he being a lawyer, that we’ve got a solid shot on appeal,” the defense attorney said.

Harpootlian told CNN that he and Griffin spent almost a year working with Alex, his son Paul, and his wife, Maggie, on a criminal boat case from 2019.

“We saw them holding hands, we saw a relationship between Paul and Alex,” Harpootlian said, adding that it is “inexplicable that he would execute his son and his wife in that fashion, in my mind.”

Asked if Murdaugh believes he’s innocent, Harpootlian said, “Absolutely, he says he’s innocent.”

Both lawyers said they were surprised by how quickly the jury arrived at a verdict on Thursday after deliberating for less than three hours.

“We were surprised that deliberations didn’t take longer than they did. And it was a little disturbing,” Griffin said.

But Harpootlian said there was nothing they wished they had done differently.

The case “was over” once the focus turned to Murdaugh’s financial issues for two weeks, he said.

Close connections: The defense attorneys explained how the case was personal not only for themselves, but for the judge and prosecution too.

Griffin said that “it struck me how personal it was” for Judge Clifton Newman and that the judge prompted Murdaugh to speak during Friday’s sentencing.

“This whole case is somewhat personal for all the players involved, and that’s what makes it an unusual setting for a criminal case,” he said.

Griffin said he found the judge’s questions to Murdaugh on Friday interesting.

“Judge Newman was trying to entice Alex to talk more than what he did, but you know, Alex was … had planned to limit his words, and he did,” he said.

Harpootlian said some facts that Newman cited “were inaccurate.”

“I mean obviously he was expressing what he felt, but I don’t think they were particularly accurate or right,” he added.

Defense attorneys are questioning Judge Clifton Newman’s decision to allow much of Alex Murdaugh’s financial misconduct information to be a part of the trial.

“We never anticipated that the judge would let this kind of … almost three weeks of financial misconduct come in, in a murder trial. It wasn’t the Bernie Madoff trial. It was a murder trial,” attorney Dick Harpootlian said.

Another defense attorney on the team, Jim Griffin, said the jurors should not have heard some of the evidence they were presented.

“We think some of the evidence they heard, they should not have,” Griffin said. “They’re weighing a murder case, then they’d just heard two weeks of financial crime cases that he’s obviously guilty of,” Griffin said.“I think that was a problem in the jury deliberations. That’s why it did not get as serious consideration as we expected.”

The attorneys say they plan to file an appeal within the next 10 days.

In a separate case that has not yet gone to trial, Murdaugh faces 99 charges stemming from a slew of alleged financial crimes, including defrauding his clients, former law firm and the government of millions.

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian explained why the team decided to have Alex Murdaugh take the stand to testify in his own defense, saying his credibility was under question because of his alleged financial wrongdoings.

“Once they got that character information — ‘he’s a thief, he’s a liar’ — then this jury had to think that he’s despicable human being, and not be believed. So it was about character, it wasn’t about motive,” Harpootlian told reporters on Friday, just hours after Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison by the judge.

Murdaugh always wanted to take the stand, but the team debated whether he should until the financial information came out, which limited their defense options, the lawyer explained.

“As a result, our options were limited, Should he take the stand? Well we debated that. He always wanted to take the stand. Once that information was in, I mean he had to take the stand to explain the kennel video, the lie,” Harpootlian said.

“His credibility had been stripped away by the financial mistakes,” he added.

In a separate case that has not yet gone to trial, Murdaugh faces 99 charges stemming from a slew of alleged financial crimes, including defrauding his clients, former law firm and the government of millions.

The defense team for Alex Murdaugh, who was sentenced to life in prison Friday for the murders of his wife and son, plans to appeal the former attorney’s conviction, his lawyers said.

The team plans to file a notice of intention to appeal the decision within 10 days. Attorney Richard “Dick” Harpootlian shared the timeline in response to a question from a reporter outside the courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, Friday.

A reporter followed up with a question about what the defense believes is the strongest grounds for an appeal.

Another of Murdaugh’s attorneys, Jim Griffin, highlighted the admission of financial crimes evidence to be considered in support of the prosecution’s presented motive for the killings —to distract and delay investigations into Murdaugh’s growing financial problems.

“That was being offered as motive for why he would go home and kill his wife and son, which we thought was illogical and ludicrous,” Griffin said. “There really was no evidence linking one to the other, and we did not think it should (be admitted).”

More context: The prosecution’s focus on Murdaugh’s financial motive underscored thelack of direct evidence —such as a murder weapon, bloody clothing or eyewitnesses — that connected him to the killings. Instead, they hinged their case on circ*mstantial evidence,including a consequential video placing Murdaugh at the crime scene that night.

Though the financial evidence was not directly related to the murder charges, the judgeoverseeing the caseruled to allow it, saying it was “so intimately connected” with the state’s case “that proof of it is essential to complete the story.” He instructed jurors to only consider the financial evidence as part of the motive and not as a broader criticism of the defendant’s character.

CNN’s Eric Levenson and Alta Spells contributed to this post.

The chief of the state law enforcement agency that played a role in the investigation of the Murdaugh family murders spoke outside the courthouse shortly after Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison Friday, saying he understood the immense scrutiny the case had placed on his organization.

Chief Mark Keel of theSouth Carolina Law Enforcement Division(SLED) said he rarely holds news conferences, but it was “important for me to speak out … because Maggie and Paul (Murdaugh) cannot.”

Keel said his team worked “under constant scrutiny, constant pressure” in the case.

During the trial, Murdaugh’s defense attacked the work of SLED agents in an effort to prove his innocence, claiming the agency had “failed miserably” in their investigation, and going as far as to accuse investigators of fabricating evidence against Murdaugh because his known financial and drug issues made him an “easy target.”

Keel said he chose not to speak publicly about the investigation until the trial concluded, because he believed in the criminal justice system and in “the rights of an accused to have a fair trial.”

Now that the trial is over, he voiced pride for the investigators’ work. Keel said his staff works “day in and day out for days just like today —to bring justice for victims.”

“And today is not the end, just the next step in a long road to justice for every person who has been victimized by Alex Murdaugh,” Keel said, referencing the 99 separate charges that Murdaugh still faces from a horde of alleged financial crimes.

After being sentenced to life in prison for the murders of his wife and son, Alex Murdaugh was released into the custody of the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

Wearing a brown jumpsuit and handcuffs, he could be seen exiting the courtroom with a law enforcement official guiding him.

Murdaugh is now expected to begin intake and evaluation processing, which is expected to last for several weeks, according to the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office.The average time is normally about 45 days.

Murdaugh will remain in a holding facility in Columbia, South Carolina, during that period, according to a South Carolina legal source with knowledge of the situation.

During the sentencing hearing for disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, Judge Clifton Newman said he had to have a portrait of Murdaugh’s grandfather removed from the courthouse to ensure a fair trial.

“You have a wife who has beenkilled, murdered.A son who has been savagelymurdered.A lawyer, a person from therespected family who hascontrolled justice in thiscommunity for over a century, aperson whose grandfather’s portrait hang atthe back of the courthouse that Ihad to have ordered removed inorder to ensure that a fairtrial was had by both the stateand the defense,” Newman said during the sentencing hearing.

Family background: Murdaugh was a former personal injury attorney and member of a dynastic family in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather served as the local prosecutorconsecutively from 1920 to 2006.

After sentencing Alex Murdaugh to life in prison for the murders of his wife and son, Judge Clifton Newman adjourned the court.

Before adjourning, Newman gave some instructions on protecting the jurors’ identity. He said jurors can choose to speak to the media or stay private and requested that their wishes be respected.

Judge Clifton Newman spoke about Alex Murdaugh’s lies during the investigation, saying that his slain wife and son must “come and visit” while he is trying to fall asleep, to which Murdaugh responded that he sees them “all day and every night.”

Newman said Murdaugh’s murder conviction qualifies for the death penalty.

“I don’t question at all thedecision of the state not topursue the death penalty.But as I sit here in thiscourtroom and look around at themany portraits of judges andother court officials andreflect on the fact that overthe past century, your family —including you — have beenprosecuting people here in thiscourtroom, and many have receivedthe death penalty, probably forlesser conduct,” Newman said.

The judge then asked Murdaugh about his statement during testimony about lying to investigators about his whereabouts on the night of the murders.

“Remind me of the expression you gave on the witness stand.… ‘Oh, what tangled web we weave.’What did you mean by that?” he asked, and Murdaugh responded, “I meant that when I lied, Icontinued to lie.”

The judge then said, “And the question is, when willit end?When will it end?And it has ended already for thejury, because they’ve concluded that you havecontinued to lie and liedthroughout your testimony.”

“It has already ended formany who have heard you andconcluded that it’ll never endbut within your own soul, youwill have to deal with that.And I know you have to see Pauland Maggie during the nighttime when you’re attempting to go to sleep. I’m sure they come and visit you, I’m sure,” he said.

Murdaugh said he sees his wife Maggie and son Paul “all day and every night.”

“And they will continue to do so and reflect on the last time you looked them in eyes, as you looked the jury in the eyes,” Newman said.

Murdaugh again said he is innocent.

Before giving his sentence, Judge Clifton Newman spoke of the opioid addiction that Alex Murdaugh admitted on the stand.

After Murdaugh reiterated his innocence, saying he would never hurt his wife and son, Newman replied, “and it might not have beenyou.It might have been the monsterthat you become when youtake 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60opioid pills. Maybe youbecome another person.I have seen that before.The person standing before me wasnot the person who committed thecrime, though it is the sameindividual.”

Some background: During his trial, Murdaugh said he sometimes took more than2,000 milligrams of oxycodoneper day in the months leading up to the deaths of his wife and son.

It is virtually unheard of for a doctor to prescribe a patient more than 100 milligrams of oxycodone a day, even for the most severe acute or chronic pain.

While 2,000 milligrams sounds astronomical in comparison, taking that much daily is medically possible,according to CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta.

Judge Clifton Newman said that Alex Murdaugh’s trial was “one of the most troubling cases” for him as a judge, as well as for the state, defense team and the community.

Newman acknowledged he saw Murdaugh on various occasions, since they are both part of the legal community.

“It is also particularlytroubling, Mr. Murdaugh, becauseas a member of the legalcommunity … we have seen eachother at various occasionsthroughout the years,” Newman said. “And it wasespecially heartbreaking for meto see you go, in the media, asagrieving father who lost a wifeand son to being the person indicted and convicted of killing them.”

He added, “You haveengaged in duplicitous conducthere in the courtroom, here onthe witness stand, and asestablished by the testimony, throughout the time leading fromthe time of the indictment andprior to the time of theindictment to this point intime.”

Newman said he does not expect Murdaugh to confess.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters offered condolences to the Murdaugh family and also recommended the maximum sentence for Alex Murdaugh during his sentencing hearing.

“This is a very complicatedsituation, and I want to offer mycondolences to the family thathas suffered here,” he said.

“The reality remains is thatdespite all this attention, thiscase is about Maggie Murdaughand Paul Murdaugh, and I’m sothankful that the jurors gavethem a voice,” Waters added.

Waters claimed that Alex Murdaugh “liked to stare me down” while they passed each other in the courtroom during the trial.

“I could see the real Alex Murdaugh when he looked at me. The depravity, the callousness,the selfishness of these crimes are stunning.The lack of remorse and the effortless way in which helies, including sitting rightover there on this witnessstand.Your honor, a man like that, aman like this man, should neverbe allowed to be among free,law-abiding citizens again,” he said.

“I would submit to you that theonly just sentence here to givejustice for Maggie and Paul isthe maximum, and that would betwo consecutive life sentences,” Water said.

Before the judge sentenced him, Alex Murdaugh spoke in court, again saying he did not kill his wife and son.

The sentencing hearing for Alex Murdaugh — the disgraced South Carolina attorneyfound guiltyof murdering hiswife and grown son — just started.

After more than a month and dozens of witnesses,jurors on Thursdayconvicted Murdaugh of two counts of murder in the June 2021 killings, as well as two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

Prosecutors have indicated they will seek life in prison without the possibility of parole, sparing Murdaugh the death penalty.

Alex Murdaugh’s legal team says it will not be commenting prior to sentencing Friday.

Following the sentencing hearing, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin will address the media, according to the legal team.

“The expectation for that press conference is for it to occur about an hour after the completion of the sentencing hearing but more specifics will be provided tomorrow morning,” Murdaugh’s legal team said in an email.

CNN reported, after deliberating for less than three hours, a jury found Alex Murdaugh guilty of the murder of his wife and son.

The disgraced South Carolina attorney was convicted on all four counts that he was facing — two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon in the commission of a violent crime.

JudgeClifton Newman denied the defense’s motion for mistrial on Thursday, saying that there has been an “overwhelming amount of testimony and evidence” presented to the jury.

He said this was a matter for the jury to determine and the court found that there “was sufficient evidence to find the defendant guilty if the evidence was believed by the jury.”

Alex Murdaugh was found guilty on two counts of murder in the killing of his wife and son. The jury deliberated for under three hours after hearing weeks of testimony by dozens of witnesses.

Alex Murdaugh will be released into the custody of the South Carolina Department of Corrections following his sentencing hearing today.

According to the South Carolina Attorney General’s office, Murdaugh will begin intake and evaluation processing, which is expected to last for several weeks. The average time is normally about 45 days.

During this time, Murdaugh will be in a holding facility in Columbia, South Carolina, according to a South Carolina legal source with knowledge of the situation.

After hearing weeks ofwitness testimony, jurors after – less than three hours of deliberations – convicted Alex Murdaugh of two counts of murder and two weapons charges in the death of his wife and son.

Murdaugh, a once-prominent attorney in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, fatally shot his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, and son Paul Murdaugh on the family’sexpansive hunting estateon June 7, 2021.

Here’s what legal experts say were the key points of the case:

Murdaugh’s lie to investigators: In his two-day testimony last week, Murdaughadmitted he lied to investigatorswhen he told them he hadn’t been to his estate’s dog kennels on the evening of the killings until he reported finding the bodies there. That admission came after multiple witnesses for the prosecution identified his voice ina videotaken on Paul’s phone at or near the kennels at 8:44 p.m. – shortly before, prosecutors contend, the killings happened.

Prosecutors painted Murdaugh as a dishonest and disgraced attorney who killed his wife and son to draw attention from investigations into financial misconduct allegations against him. In his testimony, Murdaugh repeatedly denied carrying out the killings but admitted tostealing millions of dollarsfrom his former clients and law firm.

Murdaugh said he had a decades-long addiction to opiate painkillers, and that it contributed to “paranoid thinking” that led him to lie to investigators. He testified he took more than 2,000 milligrams a day of oxycodone in the months before Maggie’s and Paul’s deaths.

The kennel video was a crucial piece of evidence: Prosecutors tried to overcome a lack of direct evidence — such as eyewitnesses — linking Murdaugh to the killings. They built their case in large part using video, photos, and cell phone and location data to convince the jury that Murdaugh was lying about his actions that night. Prosecutors hinged their case on the video recorded around the kennels on Paul’s phone.

Murdaugh maintained Maggie and Paul were alive when he left the kennels to return to the house, and that he eventually drove to visit his mother in a nearby town. He found the bodies near the kennels after returning, he said; authorities say he called 911 after 10 p.m. Prosecutors, however, argued he carried out the killings and then tried to create an alibi by leaving the property. They alsopointed to videosshowing he changed clothes sometime between when he was with Paul that day and when he called 911 – though the defense suggested the changewasn’t unusualfor him.

The alibi: The prosecution argued that Alex Murdaugh was “manufacturing an alibi” by calling and texting his wife and son, among others, after they were killed. The prosecutor also noted the kinds of questions Murdaugh asked law enforcement after the murders. He said one of the first things Murdaugh did was point out to police how many phone calls he made that night.

Craig Moyer, one of the jurors in the Alex Murdaugh murder trial,toldABC this morningthat it took no more than an hour to find Murdaugh guilty.

The disgraced former attorney was found guilty of murdering his wife and 22-year-old son. The verdict came after less than three hours of deliberations, CNN has reported.

“The evidence was clear,” said Moyer, who is the first juror to speak publicly about the trial.

Moyer toldABCthat the jury started by taking a vote. “It was two not guilty, one not sure and nine guilty.” His vote was guilty from the beginning, he told the outlet Friday.

Moyer said he was surprised when Murdaugh acknowledged that the voice heard in avideo of the crime scene, moments before the murders, was his own. That convinced Moyer he was guilty, he said.

That piece of evidence “was his only savior,” he said.The juror also said the defense’s argument that Murdaugh didn’t have enough time to commit the crimes and clean up wasn’t convincing.

Moyer said Murdaugh was “a good liar, but not good enough.”

“I didn’t see any true remorse or compassion or anything,” the juror said. When Murdaugh took the stand, “he didn’t cry, all he did was blow snot,” Moyer said.

Judge Clifton Newman thanked members of the jury for doing their civic duty and considering all the evidence after they returned a verdict last night in the trial of Alex Murdaugh.

Newman — who is set to sentence Murdaugh today — said the verdict the jury reached collectively was supported by the facts that were presented during the trial.

“Circ*mstantial evidence, directevidence, all of the evidencepointed to only one conclusion,and that’s the conclusion that you all reached. SoI applaud you all for, as a group, andas a unit and individually, evaluating the evidence andcoming to a proper conclusion asyou saw the law, as you saw the facts,” the judge said before dismissing the jurors Thursday night.

Newman also thanked the alternate juror, who was required to stay at the court even though they were not part of the deliberations.

Murdaugh will reappear for sentencing Friday morning. Clifton told the jury they have no obligation to attend, but they are welcome to come back as a member of the gallery.

As the guilty on all counts verdict was being read in the Colleton County courtroom Thursday, Alex Murdaugh’s only surviving son Buster Murdaugh could be seen wiping tears away from his eyes, reports CNN’s Randi Kaye who was inside the courtroom.

Alex Murdaugh appeared to be stone-faced in his expression while the verdict was being handed down.

It appeared that Alex Murdaugh mouthed “I love you,” to Buster as he was being placed in handcuffs.

Members of the jury kept their heads down and never looked in the direction of Alex Murdaugh.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled to start Friday at 9:30 a.m. ET. Prosecutors have indicated they will seek life in prison without the possibility of parole, sparing Murdaugh the death penalty.

Alex Murdaugh’s former law firm — which renamed itself due to his actions — issued a statement, saying the verdict “brings justice and some closure.”

“The actions of Alex Murdaugh are shocking to us all,” Parker Law Group said on Facebook. “Tonight’s verdict, which was rendered after a thorough and fair trial, brings justice and some closure to this awful matter. Maggie and Paul died tragically and for reasons we may never fully comprehend. They were much beloved, and we will forever mourn their loss.”

Several members of the law group testified during the murder trial.

Alex Murdaugh has been convicted Thursday of killing his wife and son. Despite the lack of direct evidence, the prosecution spent weeks outlining how Murdaugh had the motive, means and opportunity to commit the murders.

The case hinged on circ*mstantial evidence: Proving Murdaugh was at the crime scene that night and that he lied to investigators, and painting him as a fraudster who killed his family in a desperate bid to distract the investigations into his actions.

Motive

A series of witnesses have accused Murdaugh of extensive financial wrongdoing at his namesake law firm and presented evidence that he lied to nearly everyone around him in a yearslong fraud. A “day of reckoning” was coming from several different angles, so he killed his family to distract and delay those financial investigations, the prosecution argued.

Two investigations in particular that could have exposed Murdaugh’s wrongdoing were coming to a head at the time of the killings.

For one, thechief financial officer of his law firm testifiedshe had confronted Murdaugh about missing funds on the morning of June 7, 2021, hours before the killings. After the murders, the internal investigation into the funds took a backseat.

Second, Murdaugh was facing a lawsuit from the family of Mallory Beach, a 19-year-old who was killed in February 2019 when a boat, owned by Murdaugh and allegedly driven by Paul, crashed. A hearing in that civil case was scheduled for June 10, 2021, and had the potential to reveal his financial problems, prosecutors argued.

Means

Maggie was killed by a Blackout rifle and Paul was killed by a shotgun, prosecutor Creighton Waters said, adding that both were family weapons. Testimony from a weapons expert proved that Blackout rifle bullet casings discovered near Maggie’s body matched casings found on other parts of the family’s property.

Waters noted this weapon went missing and Murdaugh could not account for it.

Paul Murdaugh was killed by shots from a shotgun, one of Paul’s “favorite guns,” Waters said. Investigators determined that the two shells that killed Paul had “class characteristics” that were similar to a 12-gauge shotgun. Waters added that Alex Murdaugh had this shotgun with him on the night of the killings and that “Maggie’s DNA and blood” were found on the receiver of the gun.

Opportunity

One of the prosecution’smost compelling pieces of evidence was recorded audiothat it said placed Murdaugh at the crime scene on the night of the murders. The video focuses on one of their dogs and appears to have been recorded at the kennels at their family home in Islandton, South Carolina. Three different voices can be heard in the background of the video, and family friends identified those voices as that of Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh.

A video was filmed on Paul’s phone starting at 8:44 p.m. on June 7, 2021, just minutes before Paul and Maggie were shot dead, according to Lt. David Britton Dove, a supervisor in the computer crimes center at the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

Murdaugh’s presence there contradicted his original claim to investigators that he was not at the kennels that night, prosecutors said.

Murdaugh “told anyone who would listen he was never there,” the prosecution said in opening statements. “The evidence will show that he was there. He was at the murder scene with the two victims.”

Murdaugh later admitted to lying, testifying during the trial that he misled law enforcement because of addiction-induced paranoia.