Richard “Alex” Murdo, the South Carolina attorney who was convicted Thursday of murdering his wife and son, was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole. This is the result of a case that received wide publicity and captivated not only Americans. public, but also the whole world, as it had all the ingredients of a real police series, News.ro reports.

Alex Murdo’s case has already been the subject of documentaries on Netflix and HBO.

A jury in South Carolina on Thursday found Alex Murdo, 54, guilty of two counts of fatally shooting his wife Maggie, 52, and infant son Paul, 22, on their family property on June 7, 2021, Reuters and BBC.

Alex Murdo, the scion of a powerful family of lawyers and prosecutors in the area west of Charleston, faces a minimum sentence of 30 years in prison on each of two counts of murder under South Carolina law. The prosecutor’s office demanded life imprisonment without parole.

On Friday, Judge Clifton Newman handed down the sentence: he sentenced Murdo to prison for the rest of his life. All this time, the accused insisted on his innocence.

Alex Murdo was a personal injury attorney and member of a veritable dynasty of magistrates in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather successively served as local prosecutors from 1920 to 2006. And his eldest son is also a lawyer and even supported his father in this process, despite the fact that he lost his mother and brother.

“Maybe it wasn’t you, it was the monster you became”

On Friday, during the sentencing hearing, Judge Newman testified that in order to render a fair and impartial decision, he ordered the removal of a portrait of the defendant’s grandfather, which hung on the courtroom wall.

Speaking in a slow and measured tone, Judge Clifton Newman addressed the condemned man and made him repeat a phrase he once said at the bar: “What a tangled web we weave!”.

He told Murdo that at night, when he couldn’t sleep, he would have to face what he had done. “I’m sure they (victims Maggie and Paul) will come to you, I’m sure,” Judge Newman told him. “Every night,” Murdo replied, before repeating that he was not guilty. Judge Newman calmly responded with a line that will probably become famous: “It might not have been you, but the monster you have become.”

The case attracted intense media coverage, given the family’s political power in and around Colleton County, where the trial took place. For decades, until 2006, family members were top prosecutors in the region, and Murdo was a prominent personal injury attorney in the state.

Dressed in prison garb, Alex Murdo reiterated his innocence, perhaps a prelude to appealing the verdict: “I’m innocent. I would never hurt my wife Maggie and my son, Paw Paw,” Murdo said, using the pet. a name for Paul’s son.

Arguments of the prosecution and defense

During the trial, prosecutors portrayed Murdo as a pathological liar and argued that he alone had the means and opportunity to commit the murders. Prosecutors said he shot his wife and son to distract from a series of financial crimes he was guilty of, including stealing millions of dollars from partners and clients at his firm – money he took to fuel a years-long opioid addiction and support luxury lifestyle.

For their part, Murdo’s lawyers tried to portray their client as a loving family man who, despite financial difficulties and suffering from a drug addiction that drove him to lie and steal, would never harm his wife and child. They put forth alternative theories: Someone upset over a fatal boating accident in 2019 after their son Paul was killed may have been seeking revenge.

Murdaugh pleaded not guilty but admitted he lied about his whereabouts on the night of the murder after evidence emerged that placed him at the scene of the crime, affecting his credibility with jurors.

One of the defenders accused the investigators of fabricating evidence and noted that they built their case mostly on circumstantial rather than direct evidence.

But in the end, the jury did not believe Murdo’s version.

Verdict: murder

The courtroom was dead quiet Friday as Judge Clifton Newman began to pronounce the sentence. Alex’s surviving son, Buster Murdo, wearing a dark blue jacket, remained motionless and silent throughout the proceedings, even as the judge sentenced his father to two life terms in prison.

Despite the silence in the courtroom, Murdo could barely be heard as he spoke to the judge.

The tension finally eased when Judge Newman rapped his gavel again — hard — to end the trial. Applause rang out in the hall for several minutes. Then it was all over.

Key elements of the case

There were many vicissitudes during the trial, the BBC cites several key dates:

February 26, 2018 – Murdo’s housekeeper Gloria Satterfield dies in their home. Probably tripped and fell.

February 24, 2019 – Paul Murdo, drunk, crashes the family’s boat into Archers Creek Bridge, killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach.

April 18, 2019 – Paul Murdo is charged with three felonies in connection with the boating accident. He pleads not guilty.

June 7, 2021 – Paul and Maggie Murdo are fatally shot on the family’s hunting grounds. Alex frantically calls 911 to report the shots.

June 10, 2021 – The Mallory Beach “boat case” has been scheduled for this date. Instead, Alex is interrogated by state investigators in the case of the murder of his wife and son. Later that day, his father, Randolph, dies.

September 3, 2021 – Alex Murdo is forced to resign from his family’s law firm after being accused of squandering millions of dollars on opioids.

September 4, 2021 – Alex calls 911 and claims he was ambushed and shot in the head somewhere on the side of the road. Later that month, he admitted to carrying out the attack in an attempt to die so his son Buster could receive a life insurance payout. Alex also confesses to stealing money from his law firm and ends up in rehab.

July 14, 2022 – Alex Murdo is accused of murdering his wife and son. He also faces separate charges related to the alleged theft of millions of dollars from court settlements made by his clients.

January 23, 2022 – Alex Murdo’s trial for the murders of Maggie and Paul begins.

March 2, 2023 – A jury finds Alex Murdo guilty on all counts – two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime of violence. (News.ro)