Double murderer Alex Murdaugh will be sentenced in a Beaufort County courtroom Tuesday morning in a plea agreement over dozens of financial crimes after admitting he stole millions of dollars from vulnerable clients at his law firm.
The disgraced South Carolina attorney, who was convicted of brutally murdering his wife Maggie and son Paul earlier this year, smiled as he entered the courtroom to be sentenced by Judge Clifton Newman after Murdaugh’s victims are given the chance to share statements.
Murdaugh appeared visibly irritated as prosecutor Creighton Waters described his financial crimes to the court.
Prosecutors initially charged Murdaugh with 101 financial crimes, including breach of trust, money laundering and tax evasion and stealing $9 million, involving 18 victims.
Under the plea deal, the number was reduced to 22 crimes against each of his clients, with lawyers negotiating a 27-year sentence for the man already serving life in prison without parole.
Double murderer Alex Murdaugh seen smiling as he entered the South Carolina courtroom for his financial crimes sentencing
Prosecutor Creighton Waters, left, addresses the court during Tuesday’s sentencing
Murdaugh appears irritated as Waters describes his financial crimes
At a November 17 hearing when asked by judge Newman if he understood the seriousness of his guilty plea during the plea deal hearing, Murdaugh responded there was ‘no question in my mind.’
‘I’ve had a long time to think about it,’ he added, to which the judge replied: ‘I’m sure you have.’
His victims include Gloria Satterfield, the longtime family maid who died in a fall at the Murdaugh home. Murdaugh put his arm around Satterfield’s son at her funeral and promised he would take care of her family. He got about $4 million from his insurers then later admitted to stealing every penny.
There is the mother of Hakeem Pinckney, a deaf man who became quadriplegic after a 2009 car crash. Murdaugh acknowledged taking most of a $309,000 settlement and than an additional $89,000 payment after Pinckney died in a nursing home.
State trooper Tommy Moore went to Murdaugh after his patrol car was hit by a driver who lost control in the snow, leaving him with a neck injury. Murdaugh admitted he stole $100,000 of the $125,000 settlement.
Even Murdaugh’s brother, who worked in the family law firm, said Murdaugh took a $121,000 check meant for the brother and cashed it, prosecutors said.
Ronnie Richter, an attorney representing victims of Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes, has said the legal scion’s actions were tantamount to a ‘Ponzi scheme.’
‘Alex’s financial crimes are nothing more than a Ponzi scheme, and all Ponzi schemes work in the same way—I have to continue to steal from new people to replace the money I’ve stolen from old people,’ he said.
‘All Ponzi schemes end the same way. Sooner or later it’s like musical chairs: the music stops and someone is without a chair.
Murdaugh was convicted of the murders of his son Paul and wife Maggie at their South Carolina hunting lodge in June 2021
Buster, Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh are pictured in a photo presented to jurors during the trial at Colleton County court on Tuesday, February 14
‘And that’s exactly what happened with Alex. The music stopped, he ran out of places to get money and all of his financial crimes were exposed.’
Tuesday’s hearing will not mark the end of Murdaugh’s legal problems. He also is awaiting sentencing on federal financial crime charges, and still faces insurance fraud and other local charges after asking a friend to kill him in September 2021 so his surviving son could get $10 million in life insurance.
His lawyers are seeking a new trial for the murder trial, citing allegations that the Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill improperly told jurors to disregard Murdaugh’s testimony and pressured them to reach a quick verdict.
A different judge will decide whether to grant Murdaugh a hearing in which jurors, the clerk and maybe Judge Newman would be questioned under oath.
Newman recused himself from any of Murdaugh’s future hearings over his murder conviction after coming under fire for a controversial interview with NBC News a month after the trial, where he commented on the blockbuster trial.