By JEFFREY COLLINS and JAMES POLLARD (Associated Press)
WALTERBORO, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to life in jail with out parole Friday, a day after he was convicted of homicide within the taking pictures deaths of his spouse and son.
Murdaugh maintained his innocence when addressing the choose earlier than sentencing.
“I would never hurt my wife Maggie and I would never hurt my son Paul Paul,” he mentioned.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters mentioned not one of the victims of the crime — members of Murdaugh’s household and the mother and father and kinfolk of his spouse — wished to talk on behalf of the prosecution earlier than sentencing.
“The depravity, the callousness, the selfishness of these crimes are stunning. The lack of remorse and the effortless way in which he is, including here, sitting right over there in this witness stand — your honor, a man like that, a man like this man, should never be allowed to be among free, law abiding citizens,” Waters mentioned.
Prosecutors requested for a life sentence to carry Murdaugh answerable for what they are saying are many years of mendacity, stealing and utilizing his household’s appreciable clout of their tiny county to his benefit. Any sentence would don’t have any probability of parole.
As Murdaugh stood earlier than the choose to study his destiny, he was in the identical courtroom on the circuit the place his father, grandfather and great-grandfather tried instances because the elected prosecutor for greater than 80 years. His grandfather’s portrait hung at the back of the room till the choose ordered it taken down for the trial.
Instead of the gown shirt and sport coat he wore by the six-week trial, the lawyer who made hundreds of thousands suing massive firms on behalf of individuals injured in wrecks arrived at courtroom in a jail jumpsuit the day after he was convicted of two counts of homicide.
The Colleton County jury deliberated for lower than three hours earlier than discovering Murdaugh responsible of killing his 22-year-old son, Paul, with a shotgun and his 52-year-old spouse, Maggie, with a rifle on June 7, 2021.
Juror Craig Moyer advised ABC News that when deliberations started, the jury instantly took a ballot that got here again with 9 responsible votes. It didn’t take lengthy to persuade the opposite three.
The juror agreed with prosecutors that the important thing piece of proof was a video locked on his son’s cellphone for a 12 months — video shot minutes earlier than the killings on the similar kennels close to the place the our bodies can be discovered.
The voices of all three Murdaughs might be heard on the video, although Alex Murdaugh had insisted for 20 months that he hadn’t been on the kennels that night time. When he took the stand in his personal protection, the very first thing he did was admit he had lied to investigators about being on the kennels, saying he was paranoid of regulation enforcement as a result of he was an opioid addict with drugs in his pocket the night time of the killings.
“A good liar. But not good enough,” Moyer mentioned.
Prosecutors didn’t have the weapons used to kill the Murdaughs or different direct proof like confessions or blood spatter. But they’d a mountain of circumstantial proof, together with the video placing Murdaugh on the scene of the killings 5 minutes earlier than his spouse and son stopped utilizing their cellphones eternally.
It’s unclear who will communicate at Friday’s sentencing listening to. Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster, and one in every of his brothers testified for the protection and have been behind him on daily basis of the trial.
Murdaugh’s sister-in-law testified they have been all shut. Alex Murdaugh went on trip with them within the months after the killings.
Through greater than 75 witnesses and almost 800 items of proof, jurors heard about betrayed buddies and purchasers, Murdaugh’s failed try to stage his personal loss of life in an insurance coverage fraud scheme, a deadly boat crash during which his son was implicated, the housekeeper who died in a fall within the Murdaugh house and the grisly scene of the killings.
The now-disbarred lawyer admitted stealing hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from the household agency and purchasers, saying he wanted the cash to fund his drug behavior. Before he was charged with homicide, Murdaugh was in jail awaiting trial on about 100 different fees starting from insurance coverage fraud to tax evasion.
When he took the stand final week, Murdaugh appeared to cry as he denied repeatedly that he killed his spouse. But juror Moyer mentioned he noticed by one more lie.
“He never cried. All he did was blow snot,” Moyer mentioned. “No tears. I saw his eyes. I was this close to him.”
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Find extra AP protection of the case: https://apnews.com/hub/alex-murdaugh
___ Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”