On March 2, 2023, Alex Murdaugh was stumbled on guilty of murdering his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and his son Paul Murdaugh, 22. Jurors deliberated for decrease than three hours sooner than delivering the verdict. The following day, Murdaugh was sentenced to 2 consecutive existence sentences in penal advanced.
Between the trial and the Netflix series Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, all eyes had been on the Murdaugh family for months.
Real by the investigation and trial, Murdaugh maintained his innocence. Actually, he tried to forged suspicion on his cousin Curtis “Eddie” Smith, despite the “mountain of evidence” prosecutors had allegedly assembled against him.
Since the deaths of his wife and son, the as soon as-filthy rich and highly effective approved educated from a effectively-known South Carolina family has been disgraced in connection to his alleged involvement in unlawful drug distribution, money laundering, theft, embezzlement and perjury. Murdaugh has struggled with excessive opioid addiction for years, allegedly spending $50,000 per week on treatment. He is currently going by on the topic of 90 complete costs for his various alleged crimes.
“While you if truth be told feel a swoosh of wind blow by,” a Charleston resident educated PEOPLE in 2021, “that is my head spinning around in circles attempting to display screen this craziness.”
Murdaugh has moreover been accused of stealing hundreds and hundreds from the family of his deceased faded housekeeper, and for allegedly attempting to put together a suicide-for-rent to construct a $10 million existence insurance payout for his surviving son, Buster, 26.
Buster has understandably been struggling since the annoying deaths and staunch fallout.
“Buster is collateral hurt to his father’s boom,” a lifelong buddy educated PEOPLE. “I mediate he’s developed this attitude of ‘I’m gonna shut folk out sooner than they shut me out.’ His circle of mates got if truth be told little if truth be told rapid.”
Here’s the entire lot you to choose to study about Alex Murdaugh’s extinguish trial and alleged crimes.
Jan. 25, 2023: Alex Murdaugh’s extinguish trial begins
Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh.
In the opening statements, lead prosecutor Creighton Waters said that authorities possess GPS data from Murdaugh’s orderly devices contradicting his alibi, and cell phone video inserting him at the estate at some level of the time of the murders. Per authorities, a video Paul took at 8:forty five p.m. picks up his sigh, and the voices of every and each his parents, at the property’s canine kennels. Murdaugh at the muse educated authorities he wasn’t reach the kennels but later admitted he was mendacity.
Jan. 26, 2023: Alex Murdaugh wipes away tears when shown photos of his deceased family
Grace Beahm Alford/AP/Shutterstock
When photos from a responding officer’s body cam was shown in court, which showed Maggie and Paul’s bodies, Murdaugh was considered wiping away tears — although an officer who was known as to the crime scene reported that Murdaugh didn’t appear upset, pronouncing there had been no “considered tears.” Paul was shot twice with a shotgun, but Maggie was shot within the merit with an assault rifle, and then a entire lot of more times when she was already on the floor.
Jan. 27, 2023: Police testify there was no blood on Alex Murdaugh’s dresses
Murdaugh’s approved educated, Jim Griffin, asserted that his consumer invited authorities to search the family estate, which pointed to his innocence, because no guilty person would be so transparent.
Griffin moreover rotten-examined Det. Laura Rutland regarding the negate of Murdaugh’s dresses, asking, “He didn’t peep relish any individual who had staunch been inner feet of blowing Paul’s head off, upright?”
She spoke back, “I’m capable of’t advise that. There are the sort of range of factors that you just can be capable to must be conscious of.” Even though, she said that Murdaugh can also possess changed his dresses after the shooting.
“He’s sweating, and so that they’re dry, so I would per chance well advise constructive,” she said.
Jan. 31, 2023: Alex Murdaugh allegedly said “I did him so irascible” when shown photography of his deceased son
Jeff Croft, an agent with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, testified that Murdaugh was introduced in for questioning days after the murders of Maggie and Paul. Croft claimed that at some level of the police interview, Murdaugh got emotional and made a magnificent commentary when he first noticed graphic photography of his slain son.
“It was so irascible, I did him so irascible,” Croft alleged that Murdaugh cried. “He’s the sort of first price boy, too.”
Feb. 1, 2023: Miniature print are published about Maggie Murdaugh’s phone
Britt Dove, from the laptop crimes unit for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, testified about utilization of Maggie’s phone on the evening of her extinguish, each and each sooner than and after she died. She made a phone name at 7:50 p.m. that lasted three minutes; based totally on authorities, Maggie moreover despatched messages to a chum that evening as she headed to the property, pronouncing something felt “fishy” about Murdaugh’s habits.
After her phone name, she didn’t exhaust the phone again. At 9:06 p.m., after prosecutors possess Maggie was already slow, the phone’s camera activated for a 2nd. “It looks the phone’s being moved and the camera’s activating within the background to peep if it would per chance well admire any individual’s face that will release it,” Dove said. In the following hour, Murdaugh known as his wife’s phone thrice, and despatched her a textual boom pronouncing “Name me babe.” Prosecutors claim these had been an try and bolster his alibi.
Maggie’s phone was stumbled on discarded beside the road outside the gates of the estate.
Feb. 2, 2023: Pictures emerges of Murdaugh in two assorted outfits on the evening of the extinguish
Alex Murdaugh.
South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (2)
Proof surfaced that Murdaugh changed his dresses at some level within the evening. Prosecutors showed a Snapchat video of the disgraced approved educated carrying khakis and a blue button down about an hour sooner than the murders, and he then spoke to the police later that evening in a white t-shirt and shorts.
Feb. 6, 2023: A family caregiver testifies that Murdaugh attempted to manual her
From left, Buster Murdaugh, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, Paul Murdaugh, Alex Murdaugh.
Maggie Murdaugh/Facebook
On the stand, Mushelle “Shelley” Smith, a caregiver to Murdaugh’s mother, testified that he visited his mother’s dwelling for 15-20 minutes on the evening of the murders, but that he suggested her to negate that he was there for 30-40 minutes “if any individual asked.” The timeline is considerable to each and each the prosecution and the defense, as authorities possess said that Murdaugh visited his mother to rep an alibi for his whereabouts the evening of the murders. If he did remain at his mother’s dwelling for 15-20 minutes, prosecutors impart he would possess had the time to commit the crime.
Smith moreover described Murdaugh’s habits as “fidgety” that evening, and said that he equipped to give her money in direction of her marriage ceremony costs within the same dialog.
For his alibi, Murdaugh educated authorities that he had visited his sick father within the effectively being heart and hung out along with his elderly mother, and had reach dwelling to the 1770-acre Islandton, S.C. estate to display screen his wife and son slow, shot to demise with separate firearms.
Feb. 7, 2023: Murdaugh’s faded guidelines agency colleague testifies she suspected he was stealing
Alex Murdaugh.
Tracy Glantz/The Yelp by ZUMA
Jeanne Seckinger, the CFO of the guidelines agency the set Murdaugh was a associate, testified underneath oath that she suspected he was stealing money from the company, beginning in Can also simply 2021, when he was writing company tests to a consumer, but depositing them proper into a non-public story of his, opened with the patron’s company name. She additional testified that she confronted Murdaugh regarding the missing funds, totaling bigger than $2.8 million, on the day of the murders.
Feb. 8, 2023: Somebody calls in a bomb threat to the courthouse
Just a few weeks into the trial, a bomb threat was known as into the courthouse. Judge Clifton Newman dismissed the jurors for a “damage” and declared that the trial would “be in recess until we observe what is occurring on.”
Murdaugh was removed from the constructing by a explicit exit than approved as a security precaution, and his family evacuated to ready SUVs outside the courthouse.
Feb. 15, 2023: Murdaugh’s sister-in-guidelines testifies about a unfamiliar dialog
On the stand, Maggie’s sister Marian Proctor testified that she stumbled on her dialog with Murdaugh at present after the deaths unfamiliar, because he didn’t appear centered on discovering who had murdered his family people.
“We never talked about discovering the person that can also possess carried out it,” Proctor said. “It was staunch weird and wonderful.”
She persisted: “He said that his no 1 goal was clearing Paul’s name,” referring to his son’s role in a 2019 boating accident that resulted in the demise of 19-year-dilapidated Mallory Seaside. “And I believed that was so unfamiliar, because my no 1 goal was to search out out who killed my sister and Paul.”
Feb. 16, 2023: Murdaugh’s attorneys try and forged suspicion on his cousin
Defense approved educated Jim Griffin suggested that Murdaugh’s cousin Curtis “Eddie” Griffin can also had been concerned with the murders, citing his involvement in supplying the disgraced approved educated with treatment and his role within the botched suicide-for-rent set. Because Murdaugh’s defense personnel presented the plot, which they moreover admitted he concocted, Judge Clifton Newman dominated that the beforehand inadmissible data can also now be sensible as fragment of the trial.
Feb. 21, 2023: Buster Murdaugh takes the stand
Buster Murdaugh.
Grace Beahm Alford/AP/Shutterstock
In his testimony, Buster recalled when his father known as him to squawk him what had took station. “He said, ‘Are you sitting down?’ ” he testified. “He sounded weird and wonderful, and then he educated me that my mom and my brother had been shot.”
Buster moreover recounted his father’s mind-set on the evening of the double extinguish that took his mother and brother away from the younger man. “He was heartbroken,” he said. “I walked within the door and noticed him, gave him a hug. He was destroyed.”
Buster moreover testified that his mother and brother confronted Murdaugh within the past about his drug exhaust. Murdaugh has said he took up to 60 medicine a day to feed his addiction. “I believed that he had handled it,” Buster said, after his father went to rehab in 2018.
After testifying, Buster squeezed his father’s hand.
Feb. 23, 2023: Alex Murdaugh takes the stand in his possess defense
In a teary assertion of his innocence, Murdaugh denied committing the murders. “I didn’t shoot my wife or my son,” Murdaugh said. “I’m capable of also never deliberately set anything else to anguish either one of them, not ever.”
Feb. 23, 2023: Alex Murdaugh admits to mendacity to police
Joshua Boucher/AP/Shutterstock
Murdaugh moreover testified that he lied about data he gave to the authorities, and lied to his family about crucial aspects of the day of the deaths. He prolonged asserted that he was nowhere reach the estate’s kennels on the evening of the murders, but recanted that on the stand. “What a tangled web we weave,” Murdaugh said on the stand. “After I educated a lie — then I educated my family — I needed to support mendacity.” He attributed the lies to paranoia induced by his longtime drug exhaust.
“I lied about being down there, and I’m so sorry that I did,” Murdaugh said.
Feb. 24, 2023: Murdaugh takes the stand for a 2nd day
For the length of his 2nd day of testimony, Alex Murdaugh detailed his drug exhaust, pronouncing he took up to 2000 milligrams of painkillers a day, and that he had a “pocket fleshy of medicine” when he spoke to the police on the evening of the murders. He moreover said that Paul had confronted him a month sooner than his extinguish about medicine that Maggie expose in Murdaugh’s laptop fetch.
Feb. 28, 2023: Alex Murdaugh’s brother sheds tears whereas recounting cleaning up his nephew’s remains
John Marvin Murdaugh.
Andrew J Whitaker/AP/Shutterstock
Murdaugh’s younger brother John Marvin Murdaugh took the stand as the defense personnel’s final peep sooner than it rested its case. John recounted how he cleaned up the remains of his nephew’s body at the crime scene, telling jurors it was “the toughest thing” he had ever carried out.
‘I noticed blood, I noticed brains, I noticed pieces of skull, I noticed tissue,” he said at some level of his testimony. “And after I advise brains it would possibly perchance also staunch be tissue. I do not know what I noticed, it was staunch shocking.
John testified that on the morning after the murders, he got permission from a chum in guidelines enforcement to seek the advice of with the crime scene, and was afraid to search out that it was light covered with blood and skull and brain fragments.
While he began cleaning, he moreover vowed to search out his nephew’s killer.
“I educated Paul I cherished him, and I promised him I would per chance well discover who did this,” he testified.
March 1, 2023: Jurors seek the advice of with the crime scene
After testimony concluded at the trial, jurors took a seek the advice of with to the dwelling the set Maggie and Paul had been murdered. Per the Unique York Events, jurors spent around an hour on the property inspecting the areas the set the crimes took station.
March 2, 2023: Alex Murdaugh is stumbled on guilty of murdering his wife and son
After deliberating for decrease than three hours, jurors stumbled on Murdaugh guilty of the murders of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul.
The defendant very somewhat of rocked his head as the guilty verdicts had been study.
“I are attempting to thank the jurors for their provider and the justice they delivered to Richard Alexander Murdaugh at the present time,” Senior Assistant Deputy Authorized educated Same old Creighton Waters said in a news convention following the verdict.
“Alex Murdaugh tried one final con to discontinuance the accountability he has never needed to face in his existence, however the jury noticed by that and well stumbled on he murdered his wife and son in chilly blood,” Waters added.
March 3, 2023: Alex Murdaugh is sentenced to 2 existence sentences in penal advanced
The day after Murdaugh was stumbled on guilty of murdering his wife and son, the disgraced approved educated was sentenced to 2 existence sentences in penal advanced, which is able to tear consecutively.
Lawful sooner than handing down the ruling, Judge Newman educated the defendant, “It will also not had been you. It would per chance well need been the monster you become. Must you rob 20, 40, 50, 60 opioid medicine, per chance you become yet one more person.”
March 6, 2023: Jurors talk out following Alex Murdaugh’s trial
Three jurors who took fragment within the Alex Murdaugh trial, Amie Williams, Gwen Generette and James McDowell, shared crucial aspects from the trial at some level of an look on the At this time expose.
While talking to co-hosts Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin, Williams published the share of evidence that made her if truth be told feel the guilty verdict was sexy. “Effectively, peep testimony was very plausible, and the kennel video positively conducted a considerable fragment,” she explained.
Generette said that she “would per chance well not possess” Murdaugh took the stand, adding that when she heard his sigh in person, it “sealed the deal” that it was indeed him within the canine kennel video.
But another juror, Craig Moyer, had looked on Colorful Morning The United States just a few days earlier, mentioning that cell phone evidence presented early on within the trial is what convinced him of Murdaugh’s guilt.
“I used to be definite it was [Murdaugh’s] sigh,” he said. “Everybody else can also hear [Murdaugh’s voice] too.”
March 9, 2023: Alex Murdaugh’s legal professionals convey they are difficult his conviction
Murdaugh’s defense approved educated, Dick Harpootlian, announced on Twitter that he and Jim Griffin are difficult their consumer’s conviction as effectively as his penal advanced sentences.
“Here is the following step within the staunch project to fight for Alex’s constitutional upright to a beautiful trial,” his tweet study.
“No amount of vitriol or faulty assaults will discontinuance us from pursuing due project for Alex to the fullest extent of the guidelines,” Harpootlian wrote in a observe-up tweet.
