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Nearly two years ago disbarred attorney Richard “Alex” Murdaugh, 54, was involved in the shootings of his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, and one of their sons, Paul Murdaugh, on June 7, 2021. At the sentencing hearing, the former attorney maintained his innocence and swore that he wouldn’t hurt his wife or son. Following his guilty verdict on Mar. 2, Alex has since been given two life sentences—one for each count of murder—in prison. The sentences will run concurrently.
On the day of his guilty verdict, Alex was also found guilty of two weapons charges. The 54-year-old did defeat one of the charges in his case. The jurors deliberated for several hours and took into account six weeks’ worth of testimony by 70 witnesses. One day prior to the verdict they even visited the 1,700-acre crime scene.
In July 2022, Alex was accused of “fatally shooting” his two family members on their Islandton, S.C. property known as Moselle. During that time, he was charged with two counts of murder and two weapons charges. Although he pleaded not guilty, his son, Buster, 26, defended his father in his Feb. 26, 2023, testimony. During the testimony, the 26-year-old claimed that his father called him after he allegedly found Maggie and Paul’s bodies. “He said, ‘Are you sitting down?’” he recalled, per PEOPLE. “He sounded odd, and then he told me that my mom and my brother had been shot.”
Alex’s son also noted that his father was “heartbroken” following the tragic incident. “He was heartbroken,” Buster told the jury. “I walked in the door and saw him, gave him a hug.” In addition, he alleged that his dad was “destroyed” by his family’s deaths. Despite Buster’s accounts, prosecutors told the jury during closing arguments on Mar. 1, 2023, that Alex “stole” and “lied” to his clients for many years. “The evidence that you’ve heard shows that the defendant became so addicted and so dependent on the velocity of money that the millions of dollars in legal fees that he was receiving was not enough and so he started to steal,” Prosecutor Creighton Waters said at the time, per CNN.
The prosecutors also claimed that Alex was “under pressure” at the time his wife and son’s deaths. “The pressures on this man were unbearable and they were reaching a crescendo the day his wife and son were murdered by him,” Waters noted. In Feb. 2019, a woman was allegedly “thrown overboard” a boat that was owned by Alex. Her family later pursued a lawsuit against him, adding to the above mentioned “pressure.”
Later, Alex confessed that he had lied about his whereabouts on the night of the murders. Originally, he claimed he was not near the dog kennels on his property where his wife and son’s bodies were found. Alex finally admitted why he lied and said that he was “sorry” he did. “I did lie to them,” he said, via USA Today. “I don’t think I was capable of reason and I lied about being down there and I’m so sorry that I did.” At the time of the guilty verdict, Alex faced “30 years to life in prison without parole,” per The Los Angeles Times.
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