Why Did The Murdaughs Have Dog Kennels?

Maggie Murdaugh spent a lot of time at the kennels – According to several reports, Alex Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, was allegedly spending a lot of time at the kennels in the months leading up to her death. This was attributed to the marital issues she and Alex had been having which stemmed from their monetary troubles.

1. A source told Ok Magazine, that Maggie was growing increasingly unhappy in the marriage.
2. The source revealed that this was due to Murdaugh’s opioid addiction and the onset of that began to plague the family’s lifestyle.
3. As per the source, Maggie, who would visit the kennel at least once a week, brought along her son Paul to keep him out of trouble.

Maggie was concerned he had inherited his father’s issues. The source said that at the beginning of the summer of 2021, Maggie grew increasingly worried about Paul beginning to drink more and party harder. They added that the 52-year-old asked Paul to spend more time with her at the kennels, claiming that she wanted to make sure that the dogs were okay.

1. This was reportedly so that she could keep an eye on the 22-year-old.
2. Following the murders, the dogs were reportedly moved out of the kennels.
3. While the whereabouts of most of the dogs is unknown, the star witness in the case, Bubba, is living with Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson.
4. Blanca is a former employee of the Murdaughs, who also testified during the trial.

Quick Links : Why did Alex Murdaugh have dog kennels? Exploring how Bubba and family dogs played a role in the attorney’s conviction

What is the kennel story in the Murdaugh trial?

Dog kennel video convinced jurors Alex Murdaugh was guilty: ‘Sealed the deal’ Jurors were convinced of Alex Murdaugh’s after hearing his voice in a video recorded just minutes before the slayings, according to a new interview. Juror Amie Williams that “the kennel video definitely played a major part” in the panel’s decision toin the shooting deaths of Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22.

The Snapchat video taken by Paul on June 7, 2021, captured Murdaugh yelling at the dogs just moments before the double murder near the family’s kennels on their Moselle property. Murdaugh initially denied it was his voice, but couldn’t hide it any longer after he took the stand. “When he got on the stand, I was like, ‘OK, so it was him,'” juror Gwen Generette told NBC News.

“I don’t know him so I never knew his voice, but I realized it was him in the kennel video, and that just kind of sealed the deal.” Murdaugh copped to previously lying and came clean on the stand that it was his voice, but said he drove back to the main house in a golf cart just after the video was recorded.

• The jury after it only deliberated on a mountain of evidence for 45 minutes, but the jurors said they had largely made up their minds after Murdaugh testified.
• “If I was him, I don’t think I would have, but I think that he believes that he’s so convincing that he felt like that was his last resort,” juror James McDowell told the “Today” show.
• Murdaugh broke down in court and on the stand, but the three jurors said the disbarred lawyer seemed to be performing.

Alex Murdaugh cries while recounting what he loved about his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, during his murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, SC, on Thursday, Feb.23, 2023. AP “No, I didn’t think he was crying,” Generette said. “He turned it on and off.

It wasn’t genuine.” “We already know that he’s a lawyer,” McDowell noted. “He’s able to be emotional with cases, he’s able to be emotional with himself I think we were able to read right through that.” Murdaugh was ordered to serve two consecutive life terms by Judge Clifton Newman. He also faces charges in at least 99 separate financial crimes.

Jurors toured the home where the murder happened, including the dog kennels near where the bodies were discovered. AP

1. Prosecutors argued he killed Maggie and Paul to distract from his mounting financial crimes, but jurors said they still don’t know exactly why he did it.
2. “He wanted to have control of everything — his wife owned the majority of the things that they owned — so I’m thinking it was more like greed and being in control,” Generette speculated.
3. McDowell said that “it may not have been that one singular thing, but there’s so many things there that contribute to that overall storm.”

: Dog kennel video convinced jurors Alex Murdaugh was guilty: ‘Sealed the deal’

What is the purpose of dog kennel?

A dog kennel is a dog house which keeps your pet in confinement. Using a dog kennel you can keep your furry friend safe and protected without keeping him on leash. It will also provide security for your family members and your neighbors. If you don’t have a fenced yard or just want to keep your dog in confinement then a dog kennel will be a great thing.

What was Murdaugh’s motive?

Why Did Alex Murdaugh Kill Wife Maggie and Son Paul? The Motive Explained – In this composite image is the booking photo of Alex Murdaugh, left, who was found guilty of killing his son Paul Murdaugh and his wife Maggie Murdaugh on March 2, who are pictured right in an image from Netflix documentary “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal”.

• Maggie, 52, and 22-year-old Paul were shot dead at their home in South Carolina’s Colleton County on June 7, 2021.
• Hampton County Detention Center/Netflix Maggie, 52, and 22-year-old Paul were shot dead at the dog kennels on the family’s hunting estate in Colleton County.
• Murdaugh’s wife was shot four or five times with a rifle and his son was blasted twice with a shotgun.

Though no murder weapon had been recovered and there was no physical evidence tying Murdaugh to the case, in July 2022 he was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

• According to police, when Murdaugh reported finding their bodies, he said he had been taking a nap in the house at the time of their deaths.
• In video footage taken by Paul by the dog kennels minutes before his death and presented as evidence, prosecutors argued the three voices that could be heard were Murdaugh, his wife, and his son.

When Murdaugh took to the witness stand at his trial, he admitted lying to authorities about not being at the dog kennels. He said he had been there with his wife and son but had left to take a chicken away from a Labrador named Bubba. Murdaugh maintained his innocence and said: “I did not kill Maggie, and I did not kill Paul.

1. I would never hurt Maggie, and I would never hurt Paul — ever — under any circumstances.” Prosecutors argued that Murdaugh’s motive for the murders was to distract from financial problems he was suffering.
2. Jurors were told that Murdaugh was afraid his misdeeds were going to be discovered and so he killed his wife and son to gain sympathy.

Prosecutors argued Murdaugh believed it could buy him time to cover his tracks. The jury also heard how Maggie and Paul were aware of the lawyer’s 20-year opioid addiction, for which he was spending thousands of dollars a week to maintain. Evidence brought to light included how Murdaugh’s youngest son confronted his father over finding drugs.

• Murdaugh eventually admitted to stealing millions from his family firm and clients over the years.
• He was disbarred from practicing law in South Carolina and, as of December 2022, is facing more than 100 other charges for alleged financial crimes, including insurance fraud and tax evasion.
• The former lawyer even tried to stage his own death in September 2021 so his surviving son Buster could benefit from a $10 million life insurance policy.

When the jury’s guilty verdicts were announced the defense called for a mistrial, but this was denied by Judge Clifton Newman, who said “the evidence of guilt is overwhelming.”

What evidence supports Murdaugh murders?

Three of the jurors who served on Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial said a video filmed at the scene of the slayings was the key piece of evidence in the trial that “sealed the deal” for convicting Murdaugh in the murders of his wife and youngest son.

Prosecutors introduced a Snapchat video Murdaugh’s youngest son Paul Murdaugh filmed at the dog kennels on the Murdaugh family property, which contained audio of Alex Murdaugh yelling at one of the dogs minutes before the time of the murders. Juror Amie Williams told TODAY on Monday the video was one of the critical pieces of evidence in the case.

“The witness testimony was very believable, and the kennel video definitely played a major part,” Williams said, adding Murdaugh’s testimony in his own defense was also crucial piece of evidence she took into consideration of the verdict. Alex Murdaugh speaks with his legal team before he was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for the murder of his wife and son. Joshua Boucher / The State via AP, Pool file The jury spent about three hours deliberating on March 2 after a six-week trial before convicting Alex Murdaugh in the murders of his wife Maggie Murdaugh and youngest son Paul Murdaugh.

• Alex Murdaugh testified in his own defense on Feb.23.
• Juror Gwen Generette said she couldn’t believe that Murdaugh took the stand.
• When he got on the stand, I was like, ‘OK, so it was him,'” Generette said.
• I don’t know him so I never knew his voice, but I realized it was him in the kennel video, and that just kind of sealed the deal.” Juror James McDowell, along with Williams and Generette, said they did not think Murdaugh should have testified in his own defense.

“If I was him, I don’t think I would have, but I think that he believes that he’s so convincing that he felt like that was his last resort,” McDowell said. Murdaugh testified he did not shoot Maggie or Paul Murdaugh, and became emotional multiple times throughout his testimony,

But the jurors said on TODAY they were not convinced by the show of emotion. “No, I didn’t think he was crying,” Generette said. “He turned it on and off. It wasn’t genuine.” “We already know that he’s a lawyer,” McDowell added. “He’s able to be emotional with cases, he’s able to be emotional with himself,

I think we were able to read right through that.” When asked if they knew what Murdaugh’s motive was for the murders, all three jurors said they thought there were multiple factors, including Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes. “He wanted to have control of everything — his wife owned the majority of the things that they owned — so I’m thinking it was more like greed and being in control,” Generette said. Paul, Maggie and Paul Murdaugh. Facebook McDowell referred to the prosecution’s argument that a “storm” of events that led to the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh. “It may not have been that one singular thing, but there’s so many things there that contribute to that overall storm that I think (control) played a part,” McDowell said.

• Williams added she also thought it could have been a “combination of things.” “I don’t know if we’ll ever know,” she said.
• I think it may have been a combination of things, not just the financial, but everything was weighing heavy on him.” Murdaugh is still facing 99 other financial crimes charges stemming from allegedly stealing funds from his clients at his former law firm for over a decade.

Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison on March 3 for the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, and his attorneys said they plan to appeal the sentence. He was taken to Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina, where he will remain for about a month for evaluation before he’s transferred to a maximum-security prison to serve out his sentence. Anna Kaplan Anna Kaplan is a news and trending reporter for TODAY.com.

Was there an egg juror in the Murdaugh trial?

A juror serving in the double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh was removed Thursday for engaging in ‘improper conversations’ with individuals not involved in the case. Asked if she had belonging she needed to get from the jury room and the woman responded, ‘a dozen eggs.’

Are dogs happy in kennels?

Leaving your dog at boarding kennels – Kennels are an option for your dog when you’re away, but this will depend on whether your dog is comfortable with being in a kennel environment. Many dogs find kennels isolating and if your dog hates being left alone, leaving them in a home environment where they can enjoy the company of people will be best for them.

What is the purpose of the kennel structure?

Types Of Dog Kennels And How To Choose The Right One Dog owners will be very familiar with the term ” dog kennel “, but if you asked them to define it, you might get as many different answers as the number of people you ask. By definition, a kennel is any structure or shelter where dogs are kept.

Dog Crate Kennels: An enclosure used to keep dogs for training, security or transportation. The crate kennel is intended to replicate a dog’s den, a place where a dog can feel secure, while allowing owners an opportunity to accomplish other tasks without concern for the whereabouts or safety of the dog. Choosing A Dog Crate: The for using it and the needs of your dog. Crates can be made of plastic, aluminum, wire or fabric. Dog Breeding Kennels: Breeding kennels are places designated in accordance with the applicable regulations and rules set by a recognized governing body or advocacy group – in Canada, the main registry of breeding kennels is the Canadian Kennel Club – for the breeding of purebred dogs. Due to regulations, breeding kennels must adhere to certain structural and procedural requirements for the housing and treatment of dogs. Each breeding kennel has a name or pre-fix associated with the kennel that forms the first part of the registered name of a pedigreed dog. Choosing A Breeding Kennel: The first step is to find the dog kennel that offers the breed of dog you want. Check references and ensure they are registered with the Canadian Kennel Club Dog Boarding Kennels: Boarding kennels will accept, house and look after the basic needs of a dog temporarily while the dog’s owner is away or otherwise unable to look after the dog. The services offered by boarding kennels can vary widely, from basic shelter, food and exercise to special menus, bathing and grooming, and extra exercise. Choosing A Boarding Kennel: References are always good and you can ask friends and relatives for recommendations. You can also ask to tour the facility to get a feel for how your dog will be kept and treated. If you are interested in services beyond the basics, look for a boarding kennel that offers ther services that are most appealing to you.

Call today at or for more information on dog kennels or dog boarding services. : Types Of Dog Kennels And How To Choose The Right One

Why did Alex Murdaugh say he lied about being at the kennels?

On Friday, under cross examination, Murdaugh said he lied because he was paranoid, due to his opioid abuse, and because he didn’t trust the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

Did Murdaugh change his story?

Murdaugh even said Satterfield herself told him the dogs tripped her. Earlier in the month, however, Murdaugh says he made the dog story up and doesn’t know how or why Satterfield actually fell. Attorneys for Murdaugh now argue that the basis of that confession of judgement was just another one of his lies.

How many times was Maggie Murdaugh shot?

Investigators believe Maggie and Paul Murdaugh are killed around 8:50 p.m. near the kennels. Paul is shot twice with a shotgun, once in the chest and once in the head. Maggie is shot 5 times with 300 Blackout ammo from an AR-style rifle. Two of those shots strike her in the head.

What was Alex Murdaugh’s motive for killing wife?

Why did Alex Murdaugh kill his wife and son? Here’s the motive from prosecutors

• will now spend the rest of his years behind bars after being sentenced to life in prison for the heinous double of his wife Maggie and son Paul.
• without parole on Friday in a case that has rocked the community in Hampton County,, and captivated America for the best part of two years.
• Jurors took less than three hours to reach their unanimous verdict, deciding that – beyond any reasonable doubt – Murdaugh killed his wife and son that fateful night.
• On 7 June 2021, Maggie and Paul were brutally gunned down by the dog kennels on the powerful family’s vast 1,700-acre Moselle estate.
• Murdaugh shot his son, 22, twice with a 12-gauge shotgun while he stood in the feed room of the dog kennels – the second shot to his head blowing his brain almost entirely out of his skull.

After killing Paul, prosecutors said Murdaugh then grabbed a,300 Blackout semiautomatic rifle and opened fire on Maggie as she tried to flee. She was shot five times including twice in the head after she had fallen to her knees. But why did he do it? Why did he slaughter his wife and son? What was his motive?

1. Prosecutors laid out the motive for the murders throughout the six-week trial – a motive that jurors appeared to agree with in convicting him of murder.
2. The state pinned much of the motive on Murdaugh’s escalating financial crimes, arguing that he killed his wife and son to distract from what later transpired to be a decade-long multi-million-dollar fraud scheme – at a time when it was on the brink of being exposed.
3. On the day of the murders, jurors heard testimony of how he was confronted by Jeanne Seckinger, the CFO at his law firm PMPED, about missing payments.
4. Murdaugh had stolen the money from the firm and his clients – and didn’t have the money to pay back.
5. Three days after the murders, a hearing had also been scheduled for the lawsuit over the 2019 fatal boat crash involving Paul.
6. One night in February 2019, Paul was allegedly drunk driving the family boat when it crashed, killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach.

Alex Murdaugh is led through the courtroom for his sentencing at the Colleton County Courthouse

• While Paul was facing felony charges over the incident, Murdaugh was being sued by the Beach family and their attorney had filed a motion to compel to gain access to his finances.
• The hearing was the next step in the lawsuit with Beach family attorney Mark Tinsley testifying that this was the start of Murdaugh’s crimes unraveling.
• To some extent, the plan worked for a short time.
• After the murders, the probe into his missing payments and the boat crash lawsuit went away for a while, jurors heard.
• Mr Tinsley testified that he instantly knew there may be no longer a case if the disgraced attorney was the “victim of an unspeakable tragedy”.
• Ms Seckinger also revealed that she and the other law firm clients stopped looking into the missing payments after the murders – as they sought to rally around their colleague and friend.
• Three of the jurors who convicted Murdaugh of the murders told NBC’s Today show that they believed it was likely not “one singular thing” that motivated him to kill.
• Instead, they said they thought there were several factors at play including the disbarred attorney’s slew of financial crimes.
• “He wanted to have control of everything – his wife owned the majority of the things that they owned – so I’m thinking it was more like greed and being in control,” Gwen Generette said.

Juror Amie Williams added: “I don’t know if we’ll ever know. I think it may have been a combination of things, not just the financial, but everything was weighing heavy on him.” In the end, the murders didn’t stop the financial crimes coming to light.

• Now, Murdaugh is facing another 99 charges for stealing at least $8.7m in settlements from dozens of legal clients he represented at PMPED.
• Among the slew of charges are counts of: fraud, attempted tax evasion, money laundering, embezzlement, obtaining signature or property by false pretenses, forgery, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.

Aside from his life sentences for murder, he is also facing up to 700 years in prison on these financial fraud charges. : Why did Alex Murdaugh kill his wife and son? Here’s the motive from prosecutors

What is Alex Murdaugh’s motive for killing wife and son?

Alex Murdaugh killed wife, son to buy time, prosecutor says The jury in the murder trial of Alex Murdaugh visited the family estate Wednesday, touring the kennel area where his wife and son were found fatally shot in 2021. (March 1) Videos Jury visits crime scene in Murdaugh murder trial The jury in the murder trial of Alex Murdaugh visited the family estate Wednesday, touring the kennel area where his wife and son were found fatally shot in 2021.

(March 1) Photos Published :,, Alex Murdaugh’s theft of millions of dollars was about to be revealed so he killed his wife and son to buy time to figure a way out, a prosecutor said Wednesday during closing arguments in the disgraced South Carolina attorney’s Fearing his years of stealing from his law firm and clients would be exposed and hoping to maintain his lofty standing in the community, Murdaugh killed his wife and younger son in the hopes it would make him a sympathetic figure and draw attention away from the missing money, prosecutor Creighton Waters told jurors.

Aided by his knowledge of how criminal cases are constructed, he hatched a clever plan to make sure they were at the family’s Colleton County property on the night they were killed, June 7, 2021, he said. “The pressures on this man were unbearable. And they were all reaching a crescendo the day his wife and son were murdered by him,” Waters said.

The defense will get to sum up its case on Thursday. Murdaugh, 54, faces 30 years to life in prison if of either murder count. Investigators said his 22-year-old son, Paul, was shot twice with a shotgun and his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, was shot four or five times with a rifle outside of the kennels on their property.

Jurors began the day with a visit to the crime scene, where a pool reporter said at least one of them carefully inspected the door frame of a storage closet where Paul Murdaugh was standing when he was killed. The key piece of evidence connecting Alex Murdaugh to the killings is Paul Murdaugh shot from the kennels about five minutes before he last used his cellphone.

• It took more than a year for federal agents to hack into the young man’s locked iPhone and find it.
• Alex Murdaugh repeatedly told everyone, starting with the first investigator to respond to the killings, that he hadn’t been at the kennels that night.
• But while testifying in his own defense, he admitted that he lied and that he had been there.

“Why in the world would an innocent, reasonable father and husband lie about that? And lie about it so early?” Waters said.

• Although the weapons used to kill the victims haven’t been found, an expert testified that the markings on the bullet casings found near Maggie Murdaugh’s body matched those found on casings at a shooting range on the family’s property.
• But there was no blood spatter linking the killings to Alex Murdaugh or anyone else, and prosecutors didn’t spend much time laying out how they think Murdaugh could have killed his family, cleaned himself up, disposed of the clothes and weapons, and composed himself in the before GPS data shows he left the property to visit his ailing mother.
• The prosecution’s star crime scene expert said there wasn’t enough evidence collected at the scene to definitely say whether there were one or two shooters at the kennels.
• Still, Waters said there is enough evidence to link the killings to the financial crimes and to Alex Murdaugh being the only person with the motive, means and opportunity to kill his wife and son.

“As all of these pressures were mounting, the defendant killed Maggie and Paul,’ Waters said, pulling out his cellphone and waving it. “The forensic timeline puts him there. The use of the family weapons collaborates it. And his lies and his guilty actions afterward confirm that.” Waters said Alex Murdaugh has been lying for years to cover up his opioid addiction and the millions of dollars he stole, so it would be easy to lie about being at the kennels and killing his family, and to lie while testifying in his own defense last week.

“Always having to stay one step ahead of the game. Always have to literally beg, borrow and steal for over a decade to have the truth from being exposed,” Waters said. The prosecutor said he thought Murdaugh rehearsed his testimony and was scared to deviate, so he couldn’t give specifics when Waters asked for details that would seem memorable such as his last conversation with his wife at the kennels before she died.

“This defendant has fooled everyone — everyone who thought they were close to him,” Waters said. “He fooled Maggie and Paul, too, and they paid for it with their lives. Don’t let him fool you, too.”

1. The defense has said state agents conducted a that focused too quickly on Alex Murdaugh and missed evidence such as fingerprints and shoe prints that could have led to the real killers.
2. They asked for jurors to be allowed to visit the property in order to help them understand how small the storage room is where Paul Murdaugh was killed and the distance between
3. Prosecutors opposed the visit, saying the scene looks different than it did in June 2021, as trees and vegetation have grown and no one has lived on the property since the killings.

Judge Clifton Newman allowed the visit but cautioned jurors about the differences in how the property looks now. They were also cautioned to watch for snakes. Once closing arguments are finished, the jurors will get their instructions and begin deliberating what they learned during a trial that has included more than 75 witnesses and lasted more than six weeks.

Does Murdaugh’s other son think he did it?

Alex Murdaugh’s only surviving son testified in his double-murder trial Tuesday to help the disgraced lawyer deny that he blasted to death his wife and other son — insisting the accused murderer was “heartbroken” and “destroyed” after finding the bodies.

• Buster Murdaugh, 26, was the defense’s first witness Tuesday when his 54-year-old father’s trial resumed.
• He said his dad sounded “normal” in a call at 9:10 p.m.
• On June 7, 2021 — some 20 minutes after police believe Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, were shot to death in kennels on their Colleton County getaway estate.

“We just talked about, like, ‘Hey, how you doing,” and he was just letting me know that he was going out” to check on his ailing parents nearby, he said of the “not unusual” call. However, Buster immediately knew something was wrong when his dad called more than an hour later to break the brutal news. Buster Murdaugh, 26, was called Tuesday by his dad’s defense team. Reuters Buster (from left) with mom Maggie, brother Paul and dad Alex. Facebook Buster’s girlfriend packed his stuff, helping him get to his dad’s side in the early hours, he recalled. “He was destroyed — he was heartbroken,” he said of the accused murderer. “I walked in the door and saw him and gave him a hug and — just broken down” and barely able to talk, he said. Buster Murdaugh walking past his father on the way to the witness stand during the murder trial. AP Murdaugh getting sworn in to testify. Grace Beahm Alford/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool Advertisement Murdaugh watching his son testify in court. Jeff Blake/The State via AP, Pool Advertisement Buster said after the murder he spent “every day” with his dad “for a good while,” without seeing anything of concern. They jointly penned an appeal for info along with a $100,000 reward.

• Buster earlier recalled how guns would have been easily accessible at the estate where they hunted “everything.” “We had a lot of guns,” he told the court — recalling “12-gauge shotguns, 20-gauge shotguns, 16-gauge shotguns, 28-gauge shotguns” as well as a slew of rifles and ammo for each.
• It included,300 Blackout rifles that he and his brother both got for Christmas — before his brother’s was “stolen, lost taken,” he said.

He and his kin would often leave the weapons — usually loaded — where they found them. “Guns would not always find their way back to the gun room,” he said — saying that included being left in unlocked vehicles. His slain brother was “not good” and “left guns probably more on the property than anybody else,” Buster testified, admitting it angered him because his brother borrowed his,300 Blackout when his own went missing and was “not very good about putting it back where he found it.” Alex Murdaugh denies killing his wife and son, Paul. Reuters The red-headed surviving son has been a constant presence in the courtroom — once even getting admonished by the judge for allegedly flashing an obscene hand gesture at one of the witnesses testifying against his dad. Murdaugh testified that his father was “destroyed” after finding his mother and brother’s bodies. Grace Beahm Alford/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool His father immediately tried to pin his wife and son’s murders on the backlash to the crash, video from the scene showed. Alex tried to get himself killed to cash in a $10 million life insurance policy for his surviving son, Buster (right). Facebook However, even after the murders he did not take security precautions despite the apparent threat. Buster conceded he “knew a little bit about” his dad’s “usage of pills,” but had no idea he was stealing millions from his family’s law firm and clients.

1. His testimony came as his father’s lawyers have yet to indicate if the disgraced legal scion will take the stand in his own defense.
2. Prosecutors called 61 witnesses and introduced more than 550 pieces of evidence — much of which appeared to challenge Murdaugh’s claims that he was not at the house when his wife and son were shot dead.

The defense said Tuesday that it expects to finish its evidence and testimony by Friday. The now-disbarred lawyer has always denied the murders. He faces roughly 100 other charges, including stealing cash from clients and his family’s once-powerful law firm, all alleged crimes that emerged after the double-slaying put the spotlight on him and his family.

Is Murdaugh guilty or innocent?

Alex Murdaugh found guilty of murder of wife and son Richard “Alex” Murdaugh has been found guilty of the murders of wife Maggie and son Paul, after a six-week televised trial that culminated with the defendant unexpectedly taking the stand to plead his innocence.

The jury returned with the verdict after three hours of deliberation. Murdaugh was found guilty on two counts of murder and two weapons-related charges. Murdaugh rocked slightly as the verdicts were read, and turned to his son Buster, who had put his head in his hands, and nodded to him as he turned to be cuffed by sheriffs deputies.

He mouthed to his surviving son: “I’m sorry. I love you,” ABC’s Good Morning America reported on Friday morning. “He may be taken away,” the judge, Clifton Newman, said as Murdaugh was led out. Murdaugh will return to court on Friday for sentencing. Newman has discretion to pass a sentence of 30 years to life without parole for each of the murder convictions.

1. Neither of Murdaugh’s brothers were in court despite one, John Marvin, testifying on his elder brother’s behalf.
2. Murdaugh’s defense counsel immediately called for a mistrial, which Newman denied.
3. The circumstantial evidence, direct evidence, all of the evidence, only pointed to one conclusion – the conclusion that you all reached,” he said, before dismissing the jury.

Murdaugh, 54, had been held in jail in since October 2021 on felony counts of fraud, after millions of dollars went missing from a settlement involving the death of a housekeeper. During the murder trial, almost 75 witnesses were called. Prosecutors said Murdaugh shot and killed his family members to distract from his financial crimes.

Murdaugh claimed on the witness stand that he would never do anything to hurt Maggie and Paul, but he never, outside of a plea of not guilty, directly denied killing them. The case, the subject of a recent Netflix documentary, has been an opportunity to examine power and corruption in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, where the Murdaughs had established deep roots of power in the region as moonshiners during Prohibition.

Missteps by investigators at the murder scene, and evidence mishandling thereafter, at times appeared to jeopardise a conviction. Defense lawyers repeatedly raised issues that they believed conferred reasonable doubt. But in the closing days of the trial, as prosecutors sought to undermine Murdaugh’s defense that unknown assailants were responsible, a not guilty verdict had begun to appear remote to most observers.

Juror Craig Moyer said on Friday morning that during deliberations, after two jurors thought the father was not guilty and one was unsure, the panel talked the case through for between 45 minutes and an hour and agreed on the guilty verdicts, which Moyer had believed throughout.”He was a good liar, but not good enough,” Moyer told Good Morning America of the defendant.Moyer was convinced most particularly by the presentation of cellphone video that Paul Murdaugh sent to a friend minutes before he was killed, which featured the voice of his father.”I heard his voice clearly, and everyone else could, too,” Moyer said.Moyer also said he was sitting very close to the defendant and observed a lack of compassion from Murdaugh when he took the stand, and did not believe that the father was really crying when he showed emotion.

“He didn’t cry. All he did was blow snot. I saw his eyes. If you look at everything it’s all plain and clear,” he said of Murdaugh’s guilt. The verdict does not resolve questions over at least two other deaths connected to, the disbarred lawyer whose family had lorded over this slice of the state for close to a century.

Going back three generations, the Murdaughs have held considerable sway over the judiciary, as state attorneys general, and via a prominent legal firm that brought profitable civil-award malpractice cases that companies would sooner settle than let go to trial. Locals called the five-county district around the family’s seat in Hampton “Murdaugh country”.

At the time prosecutors estimated the murders took place – at about 8.50pm – Murdaugh claimed he was visiting his mother and had not been at the dog kennels that night. Cellphone evidence showed that he had visited the kennels, and he admitted so on the witness stand.

But he said he drove a golf cart back to the main house, 500 yards away, before the shootings took place. Prosecutors argued that Murdaugh had left the estate soon after to visit his mother to help establish an alibi. But investigators never searched his mother’s house, giving time, some believed, for the defendant to recover and dispose of the murder weapons and clothing that was likely to be heavily soiled with blood evidence.

The case leaves many issues unresolved. South Carolina state investigators are still looking into two deaths that preceded the murders of Maggie and Paul – Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaughs’ housekeeper, in 2018 and Stephen Smith three years earlier. Before the murder case was handed to jurors, they heard graphic testimony about the crime scene and if, given the estimated angles of the fatal shots, whether one assailant could have committed both crimes.

Jurors also visited the crime scene. Maggie Murdaugh, 52, was killed with five shots from a hunting rifle, while Paul Murdaugh was hit with two shotgun blasts. Both died instantly. But police arriving at the scene after Murdaugh called 911 at 10.07pm that night did not warn the community that a shooter or shooters were at large.

It was not until state investigators were brought in, and Murdaugh confessed to embezzlement, that murder charges were eventually filed. : Alex Murdaugh found guilty of murder of wife and son

Who is sitting behind Murdaugh?

The Man in the Yellow Suit Stole the Spotlight From Alex Murdaugh For most of Wendell Butterfield took up residence in the Colleton County courtroom on a gallery bench directly behind the disgraced former lawyer. Butterfield, an 80-year-old South Carolina state constable with over 50 years of law enforcement experience, wasn’t just a spectator.

• The former judge, who also has a doctorate in theology, had a job to do: He was security for Judge Clifton Newman, Court of Clerk Becky Hill, and the court reporters.
• Along the way, however, Butterfield’s stoic presence behind caught the attention of viewers watching the proceedings online.
• That, and his brightly colored suits—especially a yellow one.

“For the casting of the Murdaugh Murders Movie. Who should play Mr. Fashionista?” one Twitter user asked. “His daughter thinks Clint, I think Eastwood’s a little long in the tooth these days.” Another added: “Dr. Wendell Butterfield’s suit was telling. It brought the sunshine today.” Butterfield, who agreed to the courthouse gig just weeks before the trial began in January, told The Daily Beast that he was shocked to learn that the clothes his wife picked out for him got so much attention.

1. He added that he wasn’t thinking about his outfits when he arrived at the courthouse every morning to a sea of spectators and reporters from around the country.
2. I had no idea that my suit choices were making quite a stir,” he added.
3. It’s been surreal.” Hill told The Daily Beast it was a no-brainer to ask Butterfield—whose resume includes stints as a Marine, in the Colleton County Sheriff’s Department, and with Homeland Security conducting audits—to join the already-robust courthouse security team.

“He takes pride in his uniform and the way he looks and is always immaculately dressed with starched shirts and pants, a crisp blazer, a tie, and shoes that are shined, and a very similar likeness to a favorite and very loved actor of mine, Clint Eastwood,” she said, adding that Butterfield showed up to work “every morning before time to report with his coffee in one hand and my sweet tea in the other.” The security job, Butterfield said, also allowed him to have a front-row seat to one of the most anticipated murder trials in South Carolina.

1. He said that while he was concentrating on the safety of Hill, Newman, and other courthouse staff—he was also closely watching and the 12-person jury.
2. There were a few times when Murdaugh seemed a little distracted and nervous.
3. He was listening to witness testimonies and I could tell when he didn’t seem too pleased about what was being said,” Butterfield said, adding that Murdaugh’s “body language would change from time to time.” “Murdaugh seemed to be very involved in discussing some matters with his attorneys sometimes but the topic of discussion is unknown,” he added.

Originally, Butterfield said, he was stationed at the side of the courtroom “out of everyone’s eyesight.” But he wasn’t “too thrilled” about the seat placement because it was too far away from the people he was tasked with protecting and did not have a good view of the proceedings.

“So I took the first seat in the second row behind Murdaugh so I could go right through the gate if something were to happen,” he explained. “But I didn’t care for the fact that that meant the camera was right in my face.” Butterfield said the live-streaming of the trial didn’t stop him from “concentrating on what I was doing.” He said he closely listened to dozens of witnesses as prosecutors presented their argument that Murdaugh fatally killed his wife and son near the dog kennels of their family’s hunting estate on June 7, 2021.

And, he said, he watched how the jury and Murdaugh himself were responding to the trial. “The thing I noticed the most was that the majority of the jury was paying attention to everything that was being said,” Butterfield noted. “They were very engaged.” He said that he believed it was a “very bad idea” when Murdaugh made the decision to take the stand in his own defense.

• Butterfield said his family would sometimes come to the courthouse while he worked, including his wife who one day sat next to the mystery novelist Rhonda Rich.
• “They hit it off,” Butterfield said.
• The only real stir in the courtroom, he said, came from Murdaugh’s own family.

Butterfield said that the family was warned not to communicate with Murdaugh after his sister “came up to the defense table.” Despite a sharp warning, Murdaugh’s sister later passed a book to one of his legal clerks on the defense team. “The clerk ended up giving it to Murdaugh and it was noticed.

1. Court staff eventually moved Murdaugh’s family several rows behind the defense table to ensure there was no communication for the rest of the trial, Butterfield said.
2. On Friday, the jury only deliberated for about three hours before convicting Murdaugh of two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.
3. Butterfield said that as the verdict was being read, Murdaugh was “gritting his teeth.”

The next day, the packed courtroom was bristling with anticipation for Murdaugh’s sentencing. After a searing admonishment, the judge gave Murdaugh two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. “There was no clapping or whooping or anything like that in the courtroom,” Butterfield said.

“Everyone understood that Newman did not allow that.” Since the end of the trial, Butterfield said, he has been blown away that his fashion choices have been “talk of the town on all the different social media outlets.” His daughter, Shanna Ayer, who first alerted him to his online fame, told The Daily Beast that she enjoyed his turn in the spotlight.

“I was very proud of him and honored that he was being showcased as the best dressed in the courtroom,” Ayer added. “My dad is an amazing man who takes pride in everything he does. He is very humble but he deserves all the attention and praise for sure.” But Butterfield added that he has a different favorite moment about this trial.

What evidence was not allowed in the Murdaugh trial?

CNN — In opening statements of Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial, the prosecution went into a lengthy defense of the value and importance of circumstantial evidence. “A lot of times people hear, ‘Oh, it’s just a circumstantial case,’ but the law says otherwise,” prosecutor Creighton Waters told the jury. “The law says circumstantial evidence is just as good as direct evidence.” The lines were a preview of what has become clear through three weeks of the trial: There is no direct evidence – no witnesses, no smoking guns, no blood-soaked clothes – tying the disgraced former South Carolina attorney to the murders of his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, and son, Paul Murdaugh. Instead, the prosecution’s case against Alex Murdaugh has focused on circumstantial evidence about his opportunity and motive. In particular, they have tried to prove he was at the crime scene that night, worked to show he lied to investigators and painted a picture of a fraudster who killed his wife and son as a desperate bid to distract the investigations into his actions. For the defense, that evidence amounts to little more than “speculation” and “conjecture,” attorney Dick Harpootlian argued. They have highlighted Murdaugh’s loving relationships with his family and ridiculed the prosecution’s focus on irrelevant financial misconduct. “They’ve got a whole lot more evidence about financial misconduct than they have about a murder and evidence of guilt in a murder case,” defense lawyer Jim Griffin said in court during a debate on the relevance of this testimony. Murdaugh, 54, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and weapons charges. Separately, he faces 99 charges for an array of alleged financial misconduct that will be adjudicated at a future trial. Legal experts who have followed the trial told CNN the prosecution’s lack of direct evidence makes it harder to convict – though certainly not impossible. “It does make the case more difficult,” said trial attorney Misty Marris. “But at some point, if the prosecutors have enough evidence that they can put together that story, and show motive and opportunity, it can certainly rise to the level needed to get a conviction. Sara Azari, a defense attorney who has followed the case, has been unimpressed by much of the evidence presented. “Jurors want science, jurors want DNA, jurors want something that’s persuasive,” Azari said. “But because (prosecutors) lack it their focus is now on the tenuous motive and the lies after the fact, but neither of those things substitute the evidence that they need.” With the prosecution having wrapped its case, here’s a closer look at the prosecution’s three main arguments to convict. – Source: CNN ” data-fave-thumbnails=”, “small”: }” data-vr-video=”” data-show-html=” Situation Room ” data-check-event-based-preview=”” data-network-id=”” data-details=””> Trial witness: ‘100% certain’ Murdaugh’s voice is on video made before killings 02:25 – Source: CNN One of the prosecution’s most compelling pieces of evidence is recorded audio that they say places Murdaugh at the crime scene on the night of the murders. A video, just short of a minute long, was filmed on Paul’s phone starting at 8:44 p.m. on June 7, 2021, just minutes before Paul and Maggie were shot dead, according to Lt. David Britton Dove, a supervisor in the computer crimes center at the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. The video focuses on one of their dogs and appears to have been recorded at the kennels at their family home in Islandton. In the background, three different voices can be heard in the footage, and family friends identified those voices as that of Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh. Alex Murdaugh’s presence there contradicted his assertion to police that he was not at the kennels that night, prosecutors said. Murdaugh “told anyone who would listen he was never there,” the prosecution said in opening statements. “The evidence will show that he was there. He was at the murder scene with the two victims.” In his own opening statement, Harpootlian said the audio simply showed Murdaugh and his wife having a “normal discussion” with “no animosity.” Paul is “very happy,” Harpootlian said. “Nobody’s down there threatening him. Daddy is not pulling out a shotgun and killing him.” In the aftermath of the murders, as seen on police body-cam footage, Murdaugh told investigators that he was asleep at his home and went to visit his mother in Almeda at the time of the killings. The prosecution has used the video from Paul’s phone to try to disprove his assertion that he was asleep, and other testimony has also cut into his claims about how long he had been with his mother. “It’s up to you,” Waters, the prosecutor, said, “to decide whether or not he’s trying to manufacture an alibi.” Shelly Smith, a home care worker who was taking care of Murdaugh’s mother, testified that Murdaugh indeed visited his mother’s home for about 15 to 20 minutes on the night of the murders. A few days later, they again saw each other and Murdaugh insisted that he had been there 30 to 40 minutes on the night of the murders, she testified. “Was he there 30 or 40 minutes that night?” asked the prosecutor. “Not to my recall,” Smith replied. Other evidence focused on the series of calls and texts Murdaugh made to his wife after the killings. A tech expert testified that those calls were missing from Murdaugh’s call log, indicating they had been manually deleted. – Source: CNN ” data-fave-thumbnails=”, “small”: }” data-vr-video=”” data-show-html=”” data-check-event-based-preview=”” data-network-id=”” data-details=””> Father charged with killing his wife and son. See his interview with investigators 03:19 – Source: CNN Finally, state prosecutors have tried to put forth an adequate explanation of why Murdaugh – described as a loving and devoted family man – would slaughter his wife and son. A series of witnesses have accused Murdaugh of extensive financial wrongdoing at his namesake law firm and presented evidence that he had lied to nearly everyone around him in a yearslong fraud. A “day of reckoning” was coming from several different angles, so he killed his family to distract and delay those financial investigations, the prosecution has argued. Two investigations in particular that could have exposed Murdaugh’s wrongdoing were coming to a head at the time of the killings. For one, the chief financial officer of his law firm testified she had confronted Murdaugh about missing funds on the morning of June 7, 2021, hours before the killings. After the murders, the internal investigation into the funds took a backseat. “We weren’t going to go in there and harass him about money when we were worried about his mental state and the fact that his family had been killed,” the CFO, Jeanne Seckinger, testified. Second, Murdaugh was facing a lawsuit from the family of Mallory Beach, a 19-year-old who was killed in February 2019 when a boat, owned by Murdaugh and allegedly driven by Paul, crashed. A hearing in that civil case was scheduled for June 10, 2021, and had the potential to reveal his financial problems, prosecutors argued. Indeed, that “day of reckoning” didn’t come for another three months, when his law firm again confronted him about misappropriated funds, leading to his resignation, a bizarre murder-for-hire and insurance scam plot, a stint in rehab for a drug addiction, dozens of financial crimes, his disbarment and, ultimately, the murder charges. Though this financial evidence is not directly related to the murder charges, the judge overseeing the case ruled to allow it in, saying it was “so intimately connected” with the state’s case “that proof of it is essential to complete the story.” He has instructed jurors to only consider this financial evidence as part of the motive and not as a broader criticism of the defendant’s character. That’s easier said than done, Marris, the legal expert, told CNN. “There will be an instruction (to the jury) that – ‘just because he’s a liar doesn’t mean he committed murder,’ but in real life, the jury is hearing what it’s hearing,” she said. “They’re going to be considering one of the prosecution’s key themes, is that Alex Murdaugh was lying right from the beginning of this to cover his tracks.” Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Alex Murdaugh’s age. He is 54. CNN’s Alta Spells, Dakin Andone, Randi Kaye and Dianne Gallagher contributed to this report.

What did the judge say to Alex Murdaugh?

– Source: CNN ” data-fave-thumbnails=”, “small”: }” data-vr-video=”” data-show-html=” Newsroom ” data-check-event-based-preview=”” data-network-id=”” data-details=””> Judge condemns ‘the monster’ Alex Murdaugh became before sentencing him 01:52 – Source: CNN CNN — In a remarkable courtroom moment, the judge in Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial spoke in stark terms before sentencing the disgraced lawyer to life in prison Friday for the murders of his wife and son, Judge Clifton Newman was personal and cutting in his lengthy remarks, saying Murdaugh’s slain wife and son must “come and visit” him whenever he tries to sleep. The judge also described how “heartbreaking” it was to see Murdaugh, the once respected lawyer who he met many times in court and socially, go from being depicted as a grieving father and husband to being convicted of murder. Here’s how Newman addressed Murdaugh before sentencing him to life in prison: “This has been perhaps one of the most troubling cases not just for me as a judge, for the state, for the defense team, but for all of the citizens in this community, all the citizens in this state, as we have seen based on the media coverage throughout the nation,” Newman said. “You have a wife who has been killed, murdered. A son savagely murdered. A lawyer, a person from the respected family who has controlled justice in this community for over a century, a person whose grandfather’s portrait hang at the back of the courthouse that I had to have ordered removed in order to ensure that a fair trial was had by both the state and the defense. “It is also particularly troubling, Mr. Murdaugh, because as a member of the legal community, and a well known member of the legal community, you have practiced law before me, and we have seen each other at various occasions throughout the years, and it was especially heartbreaking for me to see you go in the media from being a grieving father who lost a wife and a son to being the person indicted and convicted of killing them, and you have engaged in such duplicitous conduct here in the courtroom, here on the witness stand, and as established by the testimony throughout the time leading from the time of the indictment and prior to the indictment throughout the trial to this moment in time, certainly you have no obligation to say anything other than saying not guilty. “Obviously, as appeals are probably expected or absolutely expected, I would not expect a confession of any kind. In fact, as I have presided over murder cases over the past 22 years, I have yet to find a defendant who could go there, who could go back to that moment in time when they decided to pull the trigger or to otherwise murder someone. I have not been able to get anyone, any defendant, even those who have confessed to being guilty to go back and explain to me what happened at that moment in time when they opted to pull the trigger, when they opted to commit the most heinous crime known to man.” “This case qualifies under our death penalty statue based on the statutory aggravating circumstances of two or more people being murdered by the defendant by one act or pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct. I don’t question at all the decision of the state not to pursue the death penalty. But as I sit here in this courtroom and look around at the many portraits of judges and other court officials and reflect on the fact that over the past century, your family, including you, have been prosecuting people here in this courtroom and many have received the death penalty, probably for lesser conduct. “Remind me of the expression you gave on the witness stand. Oh, what tangled web we weave. What did you mean by that?” “I meant when I lied, I continued to lie,” Murdaugh replied. “And the question is when will it end? When will it end? And it has ended already for the jury, because they’ve concluded that you continue to lie and lied throughout your testimony. And perhaps with all the throng of people here, they for the most part all believe or 80, 90& or 99% believe that you continue to lie now when your statement of denial to the court.” “We conducted a pretrial hearing in which you claim to have been someplace else at the time the crime was committed, and then after all of the witnesses placed you at the scene of the crime, at the last minutes or days you switched courses and admitted to being there. And then that necessitated more lies and continued to lie, and I say when will it end, it has already ended for many who have heard you and concluded that it will never end. “But within your own soul, you have to deal with that. And I know you have to see Paul and Maggie during the nighttime when you’re attempting to go to sleep. I’m sure they come and visit you, I’m sure.” Murdaugh replied: “All day and every night.” “I’m sure,” Newman said. “And they will continue to do so. And reflect on the last time they looked you in the eyes, as you looked the jury in the eyes.” “A person whose always been such a gregarious, friendly person caused his life to be tangled in such a web, such a situation that yours has spun into. It’s so unfortunate because you had such a lovely family of such friendly people, including you. To go from that to this. Your license to practice law has been stripped away from you, you’ve turned from lawyer to witness and now you have an opportunity to make your final appeal as an ex-lawyer. Murdaugh insisted: “I will tell you again. I respect this court, but I am innocent. I would never under any circumstances hurt my wife Maggie and I would never under any circumstances hurt my son paw-paw.” “And it might not have been you,” Newman replied. “It might have been the monster you become when you take 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 opioid pills, and maybe you become another person. I have seen that before. The person standing before me was not the person who committed the crime, though it is the same individual. We’ll leave that at that.” “I can just imagine on that day, June 7, when a lawyer is confronted and confesses to having stolen over half a million dollars from a client, and he has a tagger like Mark Tinsley on his tail pursuing discovery in the case involving the death of Mallory Beach and having a father for the most part on his deathbed. I can imagine, or I really can’t imagine, but I know that it had to be quite a bit going through your mind on that day. But amazingly to have you come and testify that it was just another ordinary day, that my wife and son and I were out just enjoying life. It is not credible. It is not believable. You can convince yourself about it, but obviously, you have the inability to convince anyone else about that. “So, if you made any such arguments as a lawyer, you would lose every case like that, cases you will never have an opportunity to argue anymore, except perhaps your own as you sit in the Department of Corrections. “Anything further?” the judge asked. “No, sir,” Murdaugh’s lawyer replied. “Mr. Murdaugh, I sentence you to the state Department of Corrections on each of the murder indictments. In the murder of your wife Maggie Murdaugh. I sentence you for the term of the rest of your natural life. For the murder of Paul Murdaugh, whom you probably loved so much, I sentence you to prison for murdering him for the rest of your natural life. Those sentences will run consecutive. Under the statute involving possession of a weapon during a violent crime there is no sentence, where a life sentence is imposed on other indictments. That is the sentence of the court and you are remanded to the state Department of Corrections. And officers may carry forth on the imposition.”

What was the quick verdict for Alex Murdaugh?

Jury quickly finds Murdaugh guilty of murdering wife, son 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.

(March 2) Videos Jury quickly finds Murdaugh guilty of murder of wife, son 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.

(March 2) Jury visits crime scene in Murdaugh murder trial The jury in the murder trial of Alex Murdaugh visited the family estate Wednesday, touring the kennel area where his wife and son were found fatally shot in 2021. (March 1) Prosecution wraps in Murdaugh murder trial Alex Murdaugh’s theft of millions of dollars was about to be revealed so he killed his wife and son to buy time to figure a way out, a prosecutor said Wednesday during closing arguments in the disgraced South Carolina attorney’s murder trial.

1. Mar 1) Legal expert weighs in on Murdaugh guilty verdict Disgraced South Carolina lawyer 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.
2. March 2nd) Jury finds Alex Murdaugh guilty in murder trial Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murder Thursday in the shooting deaths of his wife and son.

(March 2) Photos By JEFFREY COLLINS and JAMES POLLARD Published :,, WALTERBORO, S.C. (AP) — 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 that pulled back the curtain on the once-prominent lawyer’s fall from grace. Murdaugh, 54, faces 30 years to life in prison without parole for each murder charge when court is scheduled to reconvene for sentencing at 9:30 a.m.

Friday. After the verdict was read, Judge Clifton Newman denied a defense motion to declare a mistrial, saying “the evidence of guilt is overwhelming.” Murdaugh, who wore a dress shirt and jacket, appeared stoic with a slight grimace as the verdict was read.

Once the hearing ended, Murdaugh was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom by two sheriff’s deputies. His 52-year-old wife, Maggie, was shot four or five times with a rifle and their 22-year-old son Paul was shot twice with a shotgun at the kennels near 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 for more than a year — video shot minutes before the killings that witnesses testified captured the voices of all three Murdaughs.

1. Defense attorney Jim Griffin told reporters the Murdaugh team was disappointed in the outcome but had no further comment until sentencing.
2. The state’s legal team emerged from the courthouse to a celebratory atmosphere.
3. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson thanked the prosecution for the past six weeks of late nights spent at a local hotel.

“It was all worth it. Because we got to bring justice and be a voice for Maggie and Paul Murdaugh,” Wilson said. “Today’s verdict proved that no one — no matter who you are in society — is above the law,” he added, a line met with applause from spectators.

Through more than 75 witnesses and nearly 800 pieces of evidence, jurors heard about betrayed friends and clients, Murdaugh’s in an, a fatal in which his son was implicated, the in the Murdaugh home, the grisly scene of the killings and Bubba, the chicken-snatching dog.In the end, Murdaugh’s fate appeared sealed by the cellphone video taken by his son Paul, 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 his wife and son.

“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. Murdaugh 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.

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.

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.

1. Oh, what a tangled web we weave.
2. Once I told a lie — I told my family — I had to keep lying,” he testified.
3. 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.

• Alex 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.
• The now-disbarred attorney 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 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.

Waters commended the jurors for seeing through what he described as more lies by Murdaugh. “We had no doubt that when we had a chance to present our case in the court of law that they would see through the one last con that Alex Murdaugh was trying to pull. And they did,” Waters said after the verdict.

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.

What was the result of the Murdaugh trial?

The legal team for Alex Murdaugh (center) presented their closing argument in his double murder trial on Thursday. He’s seen here listening to prosecutor Creighton Waters make his closing arguments at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C. Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool hide caption toggle caption Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool The legal team for Alex Murdaugh (center) presented their closing argument in his double murder trial on Thursday. He’s seen here listening to prosecutor Creighton Waters make his closing arguments at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C.

Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool A South Carolina jury has found once-prominent attorney Alex Murdaugh guilty on all counts in the deaths of his wife and son. Jurors deliberated for about three hours before convicting him on two counts of murder and two counts of using a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

Murdaugh showed little emotion as the verdicts were read. Sentencing was set for 9:30 a.m. ET on Friday. The 54-year-old took the stand in his own defense. He was found guilty of using a rifle to kill his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and a shotgun to kill his son Paul, 22. They died on the night of June 7, 2021, at the family’s sprawling Moselle hunting estate in South Carolina’s Lowcountry region.

• Before he was disbarred, Murdaugh was an influential attorney in South Carolina and belongs to one of the most prominent families in the state.
• He faces a sentence of 30 years to life in prison for each murder conviction.
• Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.
• Justice was done today,” prosecutor Creighton Waters said after the verdict.

“It doesn’t matter who your family is. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or people think you have. It doesn’t matter what you think how prominent you are. If you do wrong, if you break the law, if you murder, then justice will be done in South Carolina.” Judge Clifton Newman described the evidence of guilt in the case against Murdaugh as “overwhelming” and denied a request from the defense to declare a mistrial.

The judge’s comments concluded the six-week trial, which captivated South Carolina — and the nation, Media coverage included live broadcasts of the trial itself, true crime podcasts and a docuseries on Netflix. Murdaugh admitted to lying about his alibi, but insisted he did not kill his wife and son.

Earlier in the day, Murdaugh’s defense team made its final bid to prevent him from spending decades in prison, delivering their closing argument in the trial of the disbarred South Carolina attorney charged in the murders of his wife and son, A defense attorney for Murdaugh sought to sow doubt about the work by police and forensics teams, saying they fell far short of preserving evidence from the crime scene. Murdaugh’s lies and revisions to his alibi stemmed from paranoia induced by his opiate addiction, the defense insisted.