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Alex Murdaugh convicted of murder of wife, son

After weeks of testimony including more than 75 witnesses who took the stand, disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh has been found guilty of the 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul. Murdaugh, 54, faces 30 years to life in prison without parole for each murder charge. On June 7 of that year, Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, were found dead on the 1,770-acre property in Islandton, S.C., where the family’s hunting lodge was located. The Associated Press has the story:

Alex Murdaugh convicted of murder of wife, son

Newslooks- WALTERBORO, S.C. (AP)

Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murder Thursday in the shooting deaths of his wife and son in a case that chronicled the unraveling of a powerful Southern family with tales of privilege, greed and addiction.

The jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding Murdaugh guilty of two counts of murder at the end of a six-week trial that pulled back the curtain on the once-prominent lawyer’s fall from grace.

Alex Murdaugh enters the courtroom before closing arguments begin in his trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C. on Wednesday, March 1, 2023. (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool)

The judge said sentencing would take place at 9:30 a.m. Friday.

Murdaugh, 54, faces 30 years to life in prison without parole for each murder charge.

Through more than 75 witnesses and nearly 800 pieces of evidence, jurors heard about betrayed friends and clients, Murdaugh’s failed attempt to stage his own death in an insurance fraud scheme, a fatal boat crash in which his son was implicated, the housekeeper who died in a fall in the Murdaugh home, the grisly scene of the killings and Bubba, the chicken-snatching dog.

Alex Murdaugh listens as prosecutor Creighton Waters makes closing arguments during his double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse on Wednesday, March 1, in Walterboro, S.C. 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 home and hunting lodge on June 7, 2021. (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool)

In the end, Murdaugh’s fate appeared sealed by cellphone video taken by his son, who he called “Little Detective” for his knack for finding bottles of painkillers in his father’s belongings after the lawyer had sworn off the pills.

Testimony culminated in Murdaugh’s appearance on the witness stand, when he admitted stealing millions from clients and lying to investigators about being at the dog kennels where the shootings took place but steadfastly maintained his innocence in the deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.

“I did not kill Maggie, and I did not kill Paul. I would never hurt Maggie, and I would never hurt Paul — ever — under any circumstances,” Murdaugh said.

A bullet hole is seen from inside of the feed room at the Murdaugh Moselle property on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 in Islandton, S.C. Jurors have visited the South Carolina estate where prosecutors say disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh shot and killed his wife and son. The tour of the crime scene happened before jurors were to head back to court in Walterboro to hear closing arguments in the closely watched murder trial. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)

Murdaugh’s 52-year-old wife was shot four or five times with a rifle and their 22-year-old son was shot twice with a shotgun at the kennels near at their rural Colleton County home on June 7, 2021.

Prosecutors didn’t have the weapons used to kill the Murdaughs or other direct evidence like confessions or blood spatter. But they had a mountain of circumstantial evidence, led by a video locked on Paul Murdaugh’s cellphone for more than a year — video shot minutes before the killings that witnesses testified captured the voices of all three Murdaughs.

The hanger and dog kennels are seen where the bodies of Paul Murdaugh and Maggie were found at the Moselle property on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 in Islandton, S.C. Jurors have visited the South Carolina estate where prosecutors say disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh shot and killed his wife and son. The tour of the crime scene happened before jurors were to head back to court in Walterboro to hear closing arguments in the closely watched murder trial. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)

Alex Murdaugh, 54, had told police repeatedly after the killings that he was not at the kennels and was instead napping before he went to visit his ailing mother that night. Murdaugh called 911 and said he discovered the bodies when he returned home.

But in his testimony, Murdaugh admitted joining Maggie and Paul at the kennels, where he said he took a chicken away from a rowdy yellow Labrador named Bubba — whose name Murdaugh can be heard saying on the video — before heading back to the house shortly ahead of the fatal shootings.

A hose in the dog kennels at the Murdaugh Moselle property on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 in Islandton, S.C. Jurors have visited the South Carolina estate where prosecutors say disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh shot and killed his wife and son. The tour of the crime scene happened before jurors were to head back to court in Walterboro to hear closing arguments in the closely watched murder trial. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)

Murdaugh lied about being at the kennels for 20 months before taking the stand on the 23rd day of his trial. He blamed his decadeslong addiction to opioids for making him paranoid, creating a distrust of police. He said that once he went down that path, he felt trapped in the lie.

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave. Once I told a lie — I told my family — I had to keep lying,” he testified.

Alex Murdaugh, left, and his legal team listen to prosecutor Creighton Waters as he makes closing arguments in Murdaugh’s double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., Wednesday, March 1, 2023. 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. (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool)

Prosecutor Creighton Waters grilled Murdaugh about what he repeatedly called the lawyer’s “new story” of what happened at the kennels, walking him moment by moment through the timeline and assailing his “fuzzy” memory of certain details, like his last words to his wife and son.

A state agent also testified that markings on spent cartridges found around Maggie Murdaugh’s body matched markings on fired cartridges at a shooting range elsewhere on the property, though the defense said that kind of matching is an inexact science.

Dog kennels at the Murdaugh Moselle property on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 in Islandton, S.C. Jurors have visited the South Carolina estate where prosecutors say disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh shot and killed his wife and son. The tour of the crime scene happened before jurors were to head back to court in Walterboro to hear closing arguments in the closely watched murder trial. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)

Murdaugh comes from a family that dominated the local legal scene for decades. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were the area’s elected prosecutors for more than 80 years and his family law firm grew to dozens of lawyers by suing railroads, corporations and other big businesses.

Buster Murdaugh, the son of Alex Murdaugh, listens as prosecutor Creighton Waters describes his father as a “family annihilator” during closing arguments in Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, in Walterboro, S.C. 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 home and hunting lodge on June 7, 2021. (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool)

The now-disbarred attorney admitted stealing millions of dollars from the family firm and clients, saying he needed the money to fund his drug habit. Before he was charged with murder, Murdaugh was in jail awaiting trial on about 100 other charges ranging from insurance fraud to tax evasion.

Prosecutors told jurors that Murdaugh was afraid all of his misdeeds were about to be discovered, so he killed his wife and son to gain sympathy to buy time to cover his tracks.

Members of the media gather to photograph Alex Murdaugh as he is brought into the courtroom for his double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. 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. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)

Murdaugh’s lawyers will almost certainly appeal the conviction based on the judge allowing evidence of the financial crimes, which they contend were unrelated to the killings and were used by prosecutors to smear Murdaugh’s reputation.

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