Alex Murdaugh, a member of one of South Carolina’s most prominent families, has been convicted of murdering his son and wife.

the lawyer Alex Murdaughdisgraced in South Carolina, was convicted of murder Thursday in the shooting deaths of his wife and son, in a case that recount the collapse of a powerful family southerner with histories of privilege, greed and dependency.

The jury deliberated for less than three hours before convicting Murdaugh of two counts of murder at the end of a six-week trial that has drawn the curtain back on the once prominent lawyer’s disgrace.

Murdaugh, 54, faces sentences between 30 years and life without parole at sentencing, which in South Carolina usually occurs right after the verdict, but can be delayed if the judge so decides.

through more than 75 witnesses and nearly 800 pieces of evidencejurors heard of betrayed friends and clients, Murdaugh’s failed attempt to stage his own death in an insurance fraud scheme, a fatal boating accident involving his son, the housekeeper who died in a fall at the home of Murdaugh, the grisly scene of the murders and Bubba the chicken-stealing dog.

In the end, Murdaugh’s fate seemed sealed by a cellphone video taken by his son, whom he called “little detectivefor his ability to find vials of painkillers among his father’s belongings after the lawyer gave up on the pills.

The testimony culminated in Murdaugh appearing on the witness stand, when admitted to robbing millions of customers and lying to investigators about being at the kennel where the shooting took placebut he firmly maintained his innocence in the deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.

“I didn’t kill Maggie and I didn’t kill Paul. I would never hurt Maggie and I would never hurt Paul – ever – under any circumstances,” Murdaugh said.

Murdaugh’s wife, 52, was shot four or five times with a gun and his son, 22, was shot twice with a shotgun at kennels near their rural Colleton County home on 7 June 2021.

Prosecutors did not have the weapons used to kill the Murdaughs or other direct evidence such as confessions or blood spatter. But they had a mountain of circumstantial evidence, led by video locked on Paul Murdaugh’s cellphone for over a year –video filmed minutes before the murders witnesses testified to captured the voices of all three Murdaughs.

Alex Murdaugh, 54, had repeatedly told police after the murders that he was not in the pound and was taking a nap before going to visit his sick mother that evening. Murdaugh called 911 and said he discovered the bodies when he got home.

But in his testimony, Murdaugh admitted to meeting Maggie and Paul at the pound, where he said he took a chicken from a rowdy yellow lab named Bubba –whose name Murdaugh is heard in the video– before returning home shortly before the fatal shooting.

Murdaugh lied about being impounded for 20 months before taking the stand on the twenty-third day of his trial. He blamed his decades-long opioid addiction for making him paranoid, creating a distrust of the police. He said that once he took this path, he felt trapped in a lie.

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave. One time I told a lie – I told my family – I had to keep lying,” he said.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters questioned Murdaugh about what he repeatedly called the attorney’s “new story” about what happened at the kennel, running moment-by-moment through the timeline and attacking his “fuzzy” memory of certain details, such as the last words he spoke. wife and son.

A state agent also testified that marks from used cartridges found around Maggie Murdaugh’s body corresponded to the markings from rounds fired at a range on another part of the property, though the defense said this type of coincidence is an inexact science.

Murdaugh procedure of a family that dominated the local legal scene for decades. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather served as the region’s elected prosecutors for more than 80 years, and their family law firm grew into dozens of attorneys pursuing paths of iron, corporations and other large enterprises.

The lawyer, now disbarred, has admitted stealing millions from the family business and its clients, saying he needed the money to fund his drug addiction. Before being charged with murder, Murdaugh was in jail awaiting trial on 100 other charges, ranging from insurance fraud to tax evasion.

Prosecutors told jurors that Murdaugh feared all his wrongdoings were about to come to light, so he killed his wife and son to gain sympathy and buy time to cover his tracks.

Lawyers for Murdaugh are almost certain to appeal the conviction because the judge allowed the production of evidence of the financial crimes, which they say was unrelated to the murders and was used by prosecutors to tarnish reputation by Murdaugh.

(With AP information)

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