As his life unraveled over the previous two years, disgraced South Carolina legal professional Alex Murdaugh did not combat giving up his legislation license and stated he made loads of errors tied to lacking consumer cash and a monetary mess that led to 100 felony costs.
However he has adamantly insisted, from the second he discovered the our bodies of his spouse and youngest son each shot a number of occasions on the household's property in June 2021, that he was not the killer. Starting Monday, it is going to be as much as 12 jurors to resolve in the event that they agree.
Legal professionals count on jury choice to final a number of days earlier than testimony begins. It took state brokers 13 months of investigation to cost Murdaugh with two counts of homicide, and a choose has put aside three weeks for the trial. Murdaugh insisted on the trial as quickly as attainable.
Prosecutors should not looking for the dying penalty, however stated they are going to ask for all times with out parole if Murdaugh is convicted of homicide. The minimal sentence is 30 years.
This is an outline of the trial and the scene surrounding it as a whole lot of legal professionals and their help employees, reporters and true crime fans are anticipated to swell Colleton County's inhabitants of 38,000 within the rural, southern a part of the state.
The killings and the proof
Murdaugh, 54, instructed police he discovered Maggie, 52, and their son, Paul, 22, lifeless outdoors their Colleton County house on June 7, 2021. He stated he'd been gone for an hour to go to his ailing father and mom.
Authorities launched little details about the killings past saying that Maggie Murdaugh was killed with a rifle and Paul Murdaugh with a shotgun.
Prosecutors haven't detailed direct proof linking Murdaugh to the deaths. Up to now they've filed with the courtroom no confession or witness statements in regards to the killings. There isn't any proof on the eve of the trial that both gun has been discovered.
There's a video from Paul Murdaugh's cellphone with a timestamp not lengthy earlier than the killings. The three are speaking with out proof of anger. Alex Murdaugh's legal professionals stated he has by no means denied being at his house.
There may be DNA from the victims on Alex Murdaugh's shirt, however his protection stated that got here from checking for indicators of life when he discovered their our bodies.
The protection and prosecution are preventing over whether or not to permit an knowledgeable to testify that the blood on Murdaugh's shirt was splattered on it when his son was shot. Protection legal professionals stated the knowledgeable testing the shirt is mendacity and destroyed it earlier than the protection might conduct its personal exams.
Prosecutors are anticipated to rely closely on proof of Murdaugh's monetary issues, which they stated led him to kill to purchase time as he lined up his theft of settlement cash from purchasers.
Prosecutors stated the killings gave Murdaugh sympathy and, extra importantly, allowed him to cover his thefts and different crimes.
Murdaugh's attorneys have stated it's absurd to say Murdaugh would have thought his spouse and son dying violently would reduce scrutiny into his funds.
Different crimes
The homicide costs are solely two of about 100 totally different felony counts Murdaugh faces. He is also on trial on two counts of possession of a weapon throughout a violent crime.
Nonetheless hanging over his head are a broad vary of dozens of state costs. They embrace stealing thousands and thousands of dollars from purchasers, diverting a wrongful dying settlement for the household's longtime maid from her household to himself, working a drug and cash laundering ring, evading taxes, and committing fraud from what police stated was an try and have somebody kill him so his surviving son might acquire a $10 million life insurance coverage coverage.
Murdaugh additionally faces a lot of civil fits from former purchasers and over a ship crash in 2019 that killed a teen. Police stated Paul Murdaugh was driving the boat whereas grossly intoxicated and he confronted felony costs when the teenager died. The household of the teenager was aggressively attempting to get details about the Murdaugh household funds on the time of the 2021 killings.
Highly effective household
The Murdaugh title is well-known in judicial circles within the South Carolina Lowcountry. Alex Murdaugh labored for the household legislation agency that had been in enterprise in tiny neighboring Hampton County for a century, profitable a lot of multimillion-dollar settlements for deadly accidents and office accidents.
Murdaugh's father, grandfather and great-grandfather had been the elected prosecutors for 87 years straight in Colleton, Hampton and three different counties.
Sometimes, a portrait of Murdaugh's father hangs within the Colleton County Courthouse. Decide Clifton Newman dominated that or not it's eliminated for his son's trial.
Small city, massive trial
Murdaugh's downfall has attracted media from world wide and dozens of true crime podcasts and different protection. It is most likely essentially the most sensational trial in South Carolina since Susan Smith was convicted of killing her youngsters and sentenced to life in 1995 in tiny Union County.
The Murdaugh trial is happening on the historic Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, the place the big, outdated Southern courtroom can seat almost 250 individuals, or about 5% of Walterboro's inhabitants of 5,500.
Walterboro calls itself "The Entrance Porch of the Lowcountry" as a gateway to South Carolina's common seashores. It sits alongside busy Interstate 95 with a drag of quick meals eating places and a smattering of chain lodges alongside its two freeway exits.
Town final month requested meals vehicles to park close by to assist a handful of downtown eating places deal with the lunchtime crowds. On a county web site for reporters on the case, 9 residents supplied their properties or companies to media retailers to make use of as a base to cowl the trial.