Alex Murdaugh is found GUILTY of murdering his wife Maggie and son Paul trends now
Alex Murdaugh has been found guilty of murdering his wife and son after jurors spent less than three hours deliberating.
The disgraced legal scion, 54, shook as he stood while the verdict was read out at the Colleton County courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, following six weeks of harrowing testimony.
Murdaugh, 54, brutally shot dead his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, at the family's sprawling hunting estate in Moselle, South Carolina, on the night of June 7, 2021.
The disbarred attorney lied to cops about his whereabouts that night before making the stunning decision to take the stand last week, claiming his opioid addiction had made him paranoid.
But the State convinced jurors he he killed the pair to distract from the millions he had stolen from his law firm and a looming lawsuit over Paul's drunken boat wreck which threatened to ruin him financially.
He is facing up to 30 years to life in prison after being convicted of two counts of murder and two weapons charges.
Murdaugh arrives at the courthouse Thursday with his jacket draped over his cuffs. His defense are laying out their closing argument
Buster, Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh at Lake Kiwi in May 2021 to celebrate the birth of Maggie's niece's child
Prosecutor Creighton Waters yesterday told jurors closing argument: 'The pressures on this man were unbearable and they were all reaching a crescendo the day his wife and son were murdered by him.'
On the day of the killings he had been confronted over $792,000 that had gone 'missing' from a recent case. In the subsequent months it would be revealed that he had stolen more than $10m from clients and partners at his firm.
Three days after the killings he was due in court for a hearing in a lawsuit over his son's drunken boat crash in which a teen girl had died two years earlier.
The family patriarch, Randolph III, who Murdaugh had continually turned to for massive six-figure loans and relied upon emotionally, was badly ill with cancer. He died three days after the murders.
Compounding this, prosecutors say Murdaugh's opioid pill habit was spiraling and on the defendant's own admission, 'withdrawals would make him do anything.'
'Nobody knew who this man was,' Waters told the court.
He concluded the speech with the fervent plea: 'This defendant has fooled everyone, everyone. Everyone who thought they were close to him he's fooled them all and he fooled Maggie and Paul too and they paid for it with their lives. Don't let him fool you too.'
In closing arguments earlier on Thursday, Murdaugh's lawyer accused investigators of fabricating evidence. He said the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), the state's version of the FBI, failed to secure the crime scene and examine key evidence that could have exonerated Murdaugh, and instead focused on him due to scrutiny over his financial misdeeds.
