The homicide trial of distinguished South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh is now beneath method, with Murdaugh dealing with a attainable life sentence if he is discovered responsible of killing his spouse and son.

Grace Beahm Alford/AP

cover caption

toggle caption

Grace Beahm Alford/AP

The homicide trial of distinguished South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh is now beneath method, with Murdaugh dealing with a attainable life sentence if he is discovered responsible of killing his spouse and son.

Grace Beahm Alford/AP

Alex Murdaugh’s homicide trial is now beneath method in South Carolina, with the scion of a well-connected household dealing with fees that he shot and killed his spouse and son in June of 2021.

Murdaugh, 54, is being tried on the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., the place the jury choice course of started on Monday. Throngs of journalists and true-crime followers have descended on the small city for the trial.

The trial is going down in what for many years was the Murdaugh household’s seat of energy, heading the prosecutor’s workplace for the five-county Fourteenth Circuit. After Murdaugh’s great-grandfather, Randolph Murdaugh Sr., was elected to that submit in 1920, the household managed it for 86 years. In addition, the Murdaughs additionally ran a worthwhile non-public observe.

“Murdaugh will not be shackled during the trial, which begins Monday in Colleton County,” as South Carolina Public Radio reviews. “He faces life behind bars if convicted. Meantime, a portrait of his grandfather that hangs in the courtroom will be taken down.”

Judge Clifton Newman is overseeing the trial, which prosecutors anticipated to finish round Feb. 10.

In the early hours of jury choice, not less than one potential juror was excused after the decide requested if anybody had been represented by Murdaugh’s former legislation agency, sued by the agency, or had gone to any of the Murdaughs’ events, hunts or different gatherings. A person recognized as juror 203 was excused after telling Newman that he could not be neutral, as Murdaugh had sued his father.

The investigation into the tragic deaths of Maggie Murdaugh and the couple’s son Paul pulled the veil again on a privileged household, exposing dozens of monetary crimes Alex is accused of. It additionally renewed curiosity in different current deaths linked to the household that haven’t been totally defined.

Here’s a short recap of the surprising and unhappy occasions that led as much as Murdaugh being charged with homicide:

Feb. 24, 2019

The highly effective Murdaugh household was thrust into headlines when Mallory Beach, 19, died after a late-night boating accident in South Carolina’s Lowcountry with Paul Murdaugh, who was then 19, at its heart.

Authorities said Murdaugh was extremely intoxicated and steering a ship carrying 5 associates after an oyster roast when it struck a channel marker and the pilings of the R.C. Berkeley Bridge, working aground in Beaufort County, close to Parris Island. No alcohol was served on the social gathering, however the boat held a cooler with drinks, and Paul and a buddy briefly visited a waterfront bar after the oyster roast.

After the crash, Paul and others had been taken to a neighborhood hospital, the place witnesses say Alex Murdaugh also appeared. The nurse in cost described the elder Murdaugh trying to talk with each passenger from the boat, instructing not less than certainly one of them to not say something to the authorities in regards to the incident.

Mallory Beach’s physique was discovered per week later, about 5 miles from the bridge.

May 6, 2019

More than 70 days after the boating accident, Paul Murdaugh was arraigned and launched on bond after a short court docket look, pleading not responsible to felony fees that embody boating beneath the affect and inflicting Beach’s loss of life.

A grand jury had indicted Murdaugh greater than two weeks earlier, on April 18.

The area people immediately criticized the slow pace, calling it an indication of deference to the Murdaugh household that has raised generations of legal professionals within the space, together with prosecutors.

June 7, 2021

Alex Murdaugh referred to as 911 a bit of after 10 p.m., saying he had simply found the our bodies of Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22. They died on the household’s sprawling searching property often called Moselle, in Islandton, a part of Colleton County.

“My wife and child have been shot badly!” Alex Murdaugh instructed dispatchers. He reportedly instructed investigators that he had been visiting his personal dad and mom that night time.

Two completely different weapons had been used within the killings: an assault-style rifle for Maggie, and a shotgun for Paul. The coroner mentioned they died between 9 and 9:30 p.m.

June 23, 2021

Reports emerged that South Carolina Law Enforcement Division would mount its personal investigation into the 2015 death of Stephen Smith, 19, whose physique was discovered on a rural highway miles from the Murdaughs’ searching property.

Smith’s loss of life from a traumatic head harm was initially dominated an unsolved hit-and-run, however his mom has rejected that rationalization. She mentioned her son, who was overtly homosexual, was killed after his automobile ran out of fuel, forcing him to stroll alongside the highway and probably exposing him to an assault.

Smith had attended highschool with Alex Murdaugh’s older son, Buster.

“The S.C. Highway Patrol case notes from 2015 include Buster Murdaugh’s name nine times,” in line with Hilton Head newspaper The Island Packet.

Sept. 3, 2021

The legislation agency based by Alex Murdaugh’s household fired him after figuring out that he illegally siphoned thousands and thousands of {dollars} from the agency and its shoppers.

Sept. 4, 2021

Alex Murdaugh made one other name to 911, saying he’d been shot within the head whereas altering a tire on the aspect of the highway. But state investigators say he orchestrated the incident, even offering a gun to Curtis Edward Smith, 61, to assist him perform an assisted suicide and insurance coverage fraud.

Nine days later, Murdaugh admitted to the scheme, which he mentioned was an try and get his son Buster a $10 million insurance coverage payout.

Sept. 6, 2021

Alex Murdaugh resigned from his legislation agency and traveled to a Florida rehab heart for opioid habit.

Oct. 14, 2021

Alex Murdaugh was arrested on felony fees of acquiring property by false pretenses, accused of diverting thousands and thousands of {dollars} away from the property of Gloria Satterfield, his household’s longtime housekeeper who died after falling down steps on the Moselle property in February of 2018.

Murdaugh was taken into custody in Orlando, Fla., the place he had gone to a rehab facility.

Prosecutors say Murdaugh satisfied Satterfield’s sons that he would assist them get well some $2.7 million in an insurance coverage settlement, however that Murdaugh and a longtime buddy despatched many of the cash to themselves as a substitute. The alleged crimes vary from cash laundering to fraud and breach of belief.

May 4, 2022

Prosecutors introduced a state grand jury indicted Alex Murdaugh on more charges, together with fraud and forgery, bringing the entire to 79 state fees on 15 indictments. Attorney General Alan Wilson mentioned Murdaugh ran schemes that defrauded victims of $8,492,888.31.

July 12, 2022

The South Carolina Supreme Court formally disbarred Murdaugh, noting the lawyer’s “admissions of unethical conduct in the context of his myriad criminal charges.” Murdaugh, who had been suspended from working towards legislation because the earlier September, didn’t contest the choice.

July 14, 2022

A grand jury in Colleton County indicted Murdaugh on two counts of homicide and two counts of possession of a weapon through the fee of a violent crime.

“Over the last 13 months, SLED agents and our partners have worked day in and day out to build a case against the person responsible for the murders of Maggie and Paul and to exclude those who were not,” mentioned SLED Chief Mark Keel. He added, “Today is one more step in a long process for justice for Maggie and Paul.”

July 20, 2022

Murdaugh pleaded not responsible to murdering his spouse and son, as his protection staff mentioned Murdaugh “believes the killer or killers are still at large.”

At the court docket listening to, prosecutors mentioned the proof is “substantial.” But they did not present particulars in regards to the case they’ve constructed, aside from saying that monetary paperwork contact on a motive for the killings. Murdaugh was once more denied bond, and the decide mentioned he would think about a movement to restrict the quantity of proof that may be publicly revealed.

Jan. 23, 2023

The homicide trial for Murdaugh begins with jury choice.