Alex Murdaugh sobs about murders at fraud sentencing: Live
Sentencing marks only the latest chapter in the Murdaugh saga, as he continues to fight his conviction over the June 2021 murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul
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Convicted killer Alex Murdaugh was confronted by his victims in a courtroom in South Carolina today before being sentenced to 27 years in prison on a slew of state financial crime charges.
“You seem empty, I don’t see anything,” Judge Clifton Newman told Murdaugh as he handed down the sentence. “Hopefully something will emerge in your spirit, in your soul.”
For more than a decade, Murdaugh stole over $12.5m from clients at his law firm in a vast multi-million-dollar fraud scheme.
Among the victims who spoke was the family of Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh’s housekeeper who died in a 2018 “trip and fall” at Moselle. In that case, Murdaugh stole more than $4m in wrongful death settlements meant for her sons.
Murdaugh spent nearly an hour apologizing to them. He admitted he did “terrible things” that “continue to bother and disturb him.”
The disgraced legal scion reached a plea deal with prosecutors on 17 November, agreeing to plead guilty to 22 charges including money laundering, fraud and criminal conspiracy.
The sentencing marks only the latest chapter in the Murdaugh saga, as he continues to fight his conviction over the June 2021 murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul.
What happened to Paul and Maggie Murdaugh?
The twisted tale all began back on 7 June 2021 when Maggie and Paul were found shot dead at the family’s sprawling hunting lodge in Islandton.
Murdaugh claimed he discovered their bodies, placing a dramatic 911 call where he cried and sobbed on the phone.
He said he’d returned home from visiting his elderly mother and dying father to find his wife and son by the kennels on the property, both suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
The call, previously released by investigators, was made at 10.07pm local time.
Prosecutors say that the murders took place at around 8.50pm.
In the audio, Murdaugh is heard sobbing as he tells the dispatcher “it’s bad” and “my wife and child have been shot badly”.
When asked if his loved ones were still breathing, he responds “no” and urges them to “please hurry”.
Murdaugh also tells the dispatcher that he hasn’t seen anyone on the property.
It later emerged that two different weapons were used to kill the victims, with Maggie shot multiple times with an automatic rifle and Paul shot twice – once in the head and once in the chest – with a shotgun.
Graphic details about their horrific injuries emerged in the courtroom.
Maggie was shot five times in the chest and head, with the last two shots likely to have been fired after she had already fallen to the ground, according to a forensics report by Chief Kenneth Kinsey, an expert at the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office.
Paul’s injuries were even more brutal with the second shot blowing his brain out of his skull.
For more than 13 months, no arrests were made in their murders, no suspects were named and no charges were brought over their killings.
Then, in July 2022, Murdaugh was charged with murder.
What happened to Gloria Satterfield?
In October 2021, Murdaugh was released from rehab only to be dramatically arrested on charges of stealing funds from the wrongful death settlement over the mysterious trip and fall death of the family’s longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield in 2018.
Satterfield worked for the influential Murdaugh family for more than 20 years when she was found at the bottom of some stairs at the family’s home. She died weeks later from her injuries.
At the time, her death was regarded as an accidental fall – though her death certificate cited her manner of death as “natural”.
Murdaugh reached an agreement to pay her family $4m in a wrongful death settlement – but they never received a dime of the money. Instead, Murdaugh siphoned off the settlement meant meant for Satterfield’s sons to a fake company called Forge.
Questions have been swirling around Satterfield’s death ever since and investigators reopened a probe into her death.
The Hampton County coroner Angela Topper asked the SLED to reopen an investigation into her death when Murdaugh’s name began to hit headlines.
“The decedent’s death was not reported to the Coroner at the time, nor was an autopsy performed,” Ms Topper wrote.
“On the death certificate the manner of death was ruled ‘Natural,’ which is inconsistent with injuries sustained in a trip and fall accident.”
In early 2022, officials announced plans to exhume her body.
What happened to Hakeem Pinckney?
The oldest case Murdaugh is convicted of is the case of Hakeem Pinckney – a deaf man who was left a quadriplegic after a horror car crash in 2009. He died two years later.
Murdaugh stole most of a $309,000 settlement and then an additional $89,000 payment meant for Pinckney’s mother, Pamela Pinckney.
Ms Pinckney gave a powerful statement as she spoke to Murdaugh in court on Tuesday.
“To you Alex Murdaugh I never thought you would betray our family in our most vulnerable state…but I forgive you."
What other mystery deaths is Alex Murdaugh tied to?
At the time of Paul’s killing, the 22-year-old was due to stand trial over the death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach in a 2019 boat crash.
Paul was allegedly drunk driving a boat when he crashed it, throwing his friend Beach to her death.
He was charged with boating under the influence and faced up to 25 years in prison but was killed before his trial. Rumours instantly swirled that the incident was in some way connected to Paul’s death.
Following Maggie and Paul’s death, an investigation was also reopened into a third mystery death connected to the Murdaugh family.
Stephen Smith, 19, was found dead in the middle of the road from blunt force trauma to the head in 2015.
His death was officially ruled a hit-and-run but the victim’s family have long doubted this version of events and said that there were murmurings in the community that a “Murdaugh boy” may have been involved.
Smith’s death has since been ruled a homicide and his body was exhumed in spring of 2023.
‘What kind of animal are you?’ Murdaugh’s former friend breaks down in emotional moment
In an emotional victim impact statement, Jordan Jinks broke down sobbing on multiple occasions as he spoke of how close he used to be to the convicted killer – so much so that he told him he would have given him the money if he had just asked.
“What kind of animal are you?” he asked.
Mr Jinks looked Murdaugh in the eye as he said: “I’ve been waiting on this day to look in your eyes. I wanted to sit down with you one on one… unlike a lot of these people here these victims, I have a lot of intimate stuff that I could say.
“You remember all those wildlife hunts I had for law enforcement? Your entire family was the guest of honour,” he said.
Mr Jinks paused multiple times as he said: “I knew I was going to break.”
“I’m not crying because of what he stole from me. I’m crying from what he did to everybody in this suit. These kids, these people dying,” he said.
“I didn’t want to come up here and bash you. But I’ve got to ask you – What kind of animal are you?”
Mr Jinks said it “hurt” him to see Murdaugh behind bars – and that he didn’t used to believe his former friend could have killed his wife and son.
Now, after hearing the crimes he had committed against so many victims, he now does.
“When I saw you on TV in an orange jumpsuit it hurt me. When all this came about with Paw Paw and Maggie... but after hearing the things you did to these victims here, I changed my mind. So I ask you again: what kind of animal are you?” he asked.
“The money you stole from me, I would have gave to you if you asked me – that’s how I felt about you… you didn’t have to steal it from me, man.”
When Mr Jinks told Murdaugh that he would like to sit down with him and speak to him about “intimate things”, the convicted killer spoke up, responding: “I’d like that.”
Read more of the victim impact statements:
Alex Murdaugh confronted at sentencing: ‘What kind of animal are you?’
Victims of Murdaugh’s fraud scheme spoke at his sentencing on Tuesday
ICYMI: Watch Alex Murdaugh sob as he apologises to victims
Alex Murdaugh tells childhood friend ‘I hate the things I did’
Murdaugh spoke directly to one of his victims, Jordan Jinks – who moments earlier had given an emotional victim impact statement where he asked the man who used to be his friend: “What kind of animal are you?”
“JJ – I felt as close to you as anybody. I still do... we grew up together,” Murdaugh said to Mr Jinks.
Recalling memories of them fishing and hunting together across the Lowcountry, he told him: “I hate the things that I did. I mean it when I say that I care about you, as hypocritical as it is, it’s true.”
Murdaugh told him that his slain wife Maggie also loved Mr Jinks before using the opportunity to once again insist his innocence in the murders of her and their son Paul.
“My wife loved you and you are absolutely right about everything you said but you are dead wrong about one thing,” he said.
“I wouldn’t ever hurt Maggie and I would never hurt Paul. And it is important to me that you know that, as she did love you,” he said, as Mr Jinks eyes welled up with tears.
He told him that he would like to talk him up on his offer to speak to him face to face about what had happened.
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