“You have a wife who’s been killed, murdered. A son savagely murdered. A lawyer, a person from a 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“
SOUTH CAROLINA — A judge sentenced Alex Murgauh to two life sentences after he was found guilty of the murders of his wife and son.
“In the murder of your wife Maggie Murdaugh, I sentence you for term for the rest of your natural life. For the murder of Paul Murdaugh, who 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,” said the judge.
Clad in a tan jumpsuit with shackles, “I’m innocent. I would never hurt my wife Maggie and I would never hurt my son Paul Paul,” Murdaugh said to the judge ahead of his sentencing. Murdaugh showed no emotions as the judge spoke directly to him.
A trial had been ongoing for nearly five weeks or 28 days in the case of disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, who has now been found guilty.
It took a jury only hours to find Alex Murdaugh guilty of two counts of murder of his wife Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and son Paul Murdaugh, 22, in June 2021.
He was also found guilty on two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime. He was not sentenced to any time for those charges because he now has to serve two life sentences.
Both Maggie & Paul Murdaugh had been shot multiple times and were found by the dog kennels of the property. The fact that it took only 2-3 hours to reach a verdict spoke volumes especially since the case went on for several weeks.
Murdaugh initially said he wasn’t home around the time the shootings took place and instead, he was visiting his parents. However, cell phone records found Murdaugh was at his own property near where his wife and son were found killed within minutes of the murders.
The case was highlighted in a documentary by Netflix.
Alex Murdaugh also showed no emotions at all as the guilty verdict was read aloud and an officer cuffed him in a South Carolina court room.
“The evidence of guilt is overwhelming,” the judge presiding over the case said. The judge added the jury did their job by reaching a verdict based on all of the evidence.
“This has been one of the most troubling cases not just for me as a judge, for the state, for the defense team but for all the citizens in this community and all the citizens in this state and as we’ve seen based on the media coverage throughout the nation. You have a wife who’s been killed, murdered. A son savagely murdered. A lawyer, a person from a 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,” the judge said to Murdaugh.
“It’s also particularly troubling Mr. Murdaugh because as a member of the legal community and a well-known member of the legal community. You’ve practiced law before me and we’ve 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 son to being the person indicted and convicted of killing them and you’ve engaged in such duplicitous conduct here in the court room, 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 and to this moment in time, certainly you have no obligation to say anything other than saying not guilty and obviously appeals are probably expected or absolutely expected. I would not expect a confession of any kind. In fact as I’ve presided over other cases in 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 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,” said the judge.
The judge questioned Murdaugh what he meant when he said “Oh, what tangled web we weave” while on the stand.
“When I lied, I continued to lie,” replied Murdaugh. “Judge I tell you again, I respect this court but I’m innocent. I would never under any circumstances hurt my wife Maggie and hurt my son Paul Paul”
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