Alex Murdaugh sentenced to life in prison for killing wife, son

Alex Murdaugh, a South Carolina attorney, was sentenced to life in prison without parole Friday for murdering his wife and son.

Murdaugh was asked by Judge Clifton Newman if he had anything he wanted to say before sentencing him to life. He maintained his innocence saying that he would never hurt his wife and son.

Prosecutors asked for a life sentence to hold Murdaugh accountable for what they say are decades of lying, stealing and using his family’s wealth to his advantage.

Murdaugh stood before the judge in the same courtroom where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather tried cases as the elected prosecutor for over 80 years.

A portrait of Murdaugh’s grandfather was hung in the back of the room before the judge ordered it to be taken down for the trial.

The Colleton County jury deliberated for no more than three hours before finding Murdaugh guilty of killing his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, with a riffle and his 22-year-old son, Paul, with a shotgun on June 7, 2021.

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The significant piece of evidence was a video locked on Paul’s phone for a year, which showed minutes before the murder at the same kennels close to where the bodies would be found.

All three Murdaughs can be heard on the video, however, Alex Murdaugh had insisted for 20 months that he wasn’t present at the kennels the night of the killings.

He finally admitted that he had lied to police about being at the kennels when he took the stand. Murdaugh says he was paranoid of officers because he was an opioid addict with pills in his pocket that night.

Prosecutors have not found the murder weapons or other direct evidence like confessions, however, they had a number of circumstantial evidence, including the video, which was filmed five minutes before his son and wife stopped using their phones since.

Murdaugh also admitted to stealing millions of dollars from clients and the family firm, saying he needed the funds for his drug habit.

Prior to being charged with murder, he was in jail awaiting trial on nearly 100 other charges from insurance fraud to tax evasion.

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