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Alex Murdau faces trial for murdering his wife and son at a hunting ground in June 2021 — known for a multi-million dollar sentence that has given his family control over the small legal scene. The charges that led to the unraveling of a prominent South Carolina attorney who was known to have Prefecture for decades.
If convicted of murdering his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, Murdow faces 30 years in prison without parole. Prosecutors did not choose to seek the death penalty. Murdow has also been charged with two counts of him possessing a weapon in a violent crime, and he could face five years in prison.
Murdoh categorically denied murdering his wife and son and said he had been out for an hour the night of the murders to visit his ailing mother. His attorneys said in the opening statement to the trial that investigators miscoerced evidence to fit their theory that he had killed his wife and son and ignored other information. described him as a loving husband and father.
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Alex Murdaugh said he called 911 on the night of June 7, 2021 to find his son and wife dead after returning home from an hour-long visit with his mother who has dementia.
Authorities said Paul Murdoh was shot twice with a shotgun, each round loaded with a different size shot, and Maggie Murdow was hit with four to five bullets from a rifle. According to crime scene reports, both victims were shot in the head after being wounded first.
In his opening statement, prosecutor Clayton Waters admitted it was not an open and closed case.
Instead, Waters held up a cell phone in front of a jury and said such a device would be the key to linking Murdo and the killing. Waters said he could know where all three were in seconds.
Waters said there was a lot of circumstantial evidence, including the missing rifle, ammunition used in the killings similar to those found in the house, and gunshot remains. A picture of what happened.
About two years before the murder, Paul Murdoh was charged with a felony for boarding a boat under the influence. Investigators said his blood alcohol level was 0.24 percent after he crashed the boat, and 19-year-old Mallory Beach, who was on board, died.
Alex Murdau came to the emergency room on the night of the crash in February 2019 to speak with others on board the surviving boat. The Beach family said they were using their influence to thwart the investigation and divert responsibility from his son.
More than two years later, Alex Murdau mentioned the boat crash to the first lieutenant to arrive at the scene of his wife and son’s murder.
“It’s a long story. My son was shipwrecked a while ago. We’ve been threatened. We know what it is,” Murdow told Colton County Sgt. According to court-admitted body camera video, Daniel Green.
The Beach family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Alex Murdau and his family. Prosecutors said Murdow was worried that the financial information he would have to provide his attorney in that case would reveal all the money he had stolen from the client.
Murdoh family legal legacy
Murdow’s name is well known in the rural legal circles of southern South Carolina. Alex Murdaugh worked for a family law firm that operated in a small neighboring Hampton county for a century, winning a multi-million dollar settlement for fatalities and workplace injuries in a county of 18,000 people. Did.
Murdow’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather were prosecutors elected for 87 consecutive years in Hampton, Coulton and three other counties.
A portrait of Murdoh’s father is usually displayed in the Colton County Courthouse. Judge Clifton Newman decided to remove it during his son’s trial.
Other crimes Murdow was charged with
The murder charges, which took authorities 13 months to file, are just two of the nearly 100 criminal charges Murdo faces. Most of the other charges were filed first.
Indicted on tax evasion charges, Murdow earned about $14 million in nine years as an attorney, while also stealing about $7 million from his law firm.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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