Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh sentenced for financial crimes

Publish date: 2024-07-16

Alex Murdaugh pleaded guilty Tuesday for financial crimes that were key to a jury’s finding in March that he killed his wife and son, a murder case that captivated the nation and rocked a small coastal community in South Carolina. Tuesday’s plea deal includes a sentence of 27 years in prison, according to his attorney Dick Harpootlian.

Murdaugh pleaded guilty in September to a similar set of crimes in federal court, in which he admitted to stealing settlement money from people, including a quadriplegic man’s family and the family of the housekeeper who helped raise Murdaugh’s children.

The family of Gloria Satterfield, who died at the Murdaugh estate in 2018, faced Alex Murdaugh at his sentencing on Nov. 28 in Beaufort, S.C. (Video: AP)

The facts

Murdaugh, the 55-year-old former attorney, pleaded guilty to 22 counts of state financial crimes connected to his theft from clients.
At one point, the state argued that Murdaugh should face about 100 financial crime charges for swindling millions of dollars.
The then-attorney stole money to fund the Murdaugh family’s extravagant lifestyle and his addiction to opioid pills that led him into a rehabilitative-care facility three times before the June 2021 murders.
The new sentence will run concurrent to his two life sentences from the slayings, Harpootlian said. So unless the appeal of the two life sentences from the double-murder verdict is successful, Harpootlian said, this 27-year sentence “doesn’t matter” as it relates to the duration of his imprisonment.
Murdaugh’s attorneys in September filed for a retrial of the murder case, saying the county clerk tampered with the jury when she allegedly told jurors not to be “fooled” by defense testimony and instructed them to “watch out” for Murdaugh’s body language. The clerk did not respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment in September.

Background

Murdaugh was part of a legal dynasty in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, a jurisdiction that came to be known to locals as “Murdaugh Country.” Three generations of Murdaughs served as elected prosecutors for a century. They were a respected and powerful family. The prosecution in Murdaugh’s case argued that he killed his wife, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul, to shift the focus from himself and to prevent his financial crimes from being uncovered.

What the victims said

The Murdaughs’ housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, died in 2018 while working at their estate. Her sons were supposed to receive $4.3 million in insurance settlement money, but Murdaugh is accused of siphoning much of the money. One of her sons, Tony Satterfield, asked the judge’s permission to face Murdaugh at Tuesday’s sentencing. “You lied, you cheated, you stole,” Tony Satterfield said. “I will pray for you every day.”
Ginger Hadwin, the sister of Gloria Satterfield, also addressed Murdaugh. “They lost a mother, and you stole every dime from them,” she said. “And I just don’t understand. Did you not have a soul? I don’t get it.”
Pamela Pinckney’s son Hakeem Pinckney became a quadriplegic after a car crash. Murdaugh represented the family after Hakeem Pinckney died but is accused of stealing settlement money from Pamela Pinckney and her family. “I never thought that you would betray me and my family the way [you] did,” she told Murdaugh on Tuesday.
The last victim to speak was Jordan Jinks, a childhood friend of Murdaugh’s. “I’ve been waiting on this day to look in your eyes,” he said. The man’s voice began to crack as he teared up: “I’m not crying for what he stole from me. I’m crying for what he did to everybody in the suit.”

The murder

Maggie and Paul were killed June 7, 2021, on the family’s 1,772-acre rural Islandton hunting estate known to locals as Moselle. It is about 50 miles from Charleston.

During the trial, experts explained in gruesome detail how the two were shot and killed. There are no known eyewitnesses to the killings, and the murder weapons have not been recovered.

The prosecution seized upon one admission from Murdaugh during the trial: He had lied about being at the crime scene. A video on Paul’s phone included Alex Murdaugh’s voice contradicting what he had told authorities. On the stand, Murdaugh said he lied to investigators because he was nervous and had been suffering from paranoia related to his opioid addiction.

Media attention

The downfall of the Murdaugh family spawned national scrutiny of a rich family with lots of lore that had turned on one another. Their lives became fodder for documentaries on Netflix and HBO. CNN and Court TV carried Murdaugh’s defense live. The story of money, power and politics became 7,000 words in the New Yorker.

Tim Bella contributed to this report.