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State of South Carolina v. Richard Alexander Murdaugh was the trial of American former lawyer Alex Murdaugh for the murder of his wife, Maggie, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, on June 7, 2021. The trial in the fourteenth circuit of the South Carolina Circuit Court began on January 25, 2023, and ended on March 2 with a guilty verdict on all four counts. Murdaugh, who had pleaded not guilty, was sentenced to two life sentences to run consecutively without the possibility of parole. Murdaugh's attorneys filed a notice of appeal, but a new judge rejected the bid for a new trial. Local media called the trial South Carolina's "trial of the century" and "arguably one of the most high-profile and sensational cases in South Carolina legal history." Background, murders, and investigation Alex is a member of the Murdaugh family, a locally prominent family of attorneys. Paul Murdaugh had been under indictment, accused of driving a boat into a bridge while drunk, killing boat passenger Mallory Beach. Murders Alex called Maggie on June 7, 2021, and asked her to meet him at the Murdaugh family lodge. He wanted the two of them to travel together from there to see his father, Randolph Murdaugh III, who was terminally ill. Maggie texted a friend, saying Alex sounded "fishy" and was "up to something." After parking her car at the house, she walked to the dog kennels, where she found her son, Paul. Alex called police from his cell phone at 10:06 p.m., saying he had discovered the bodies of his wife, Maggie (52), and their younger son, Paul (22), near the dog kennels at the family's hunting lodge, in Islandton, South Carolina. Each had been shot multiple times (in the head, wrists, and chest), with different guns. Murdaugh claimed that at the time of the killings he had been with his mother, who has dementia; however, cellphone data, including video containing Alex's voice, placed him at the scene before their deaths. Investigation In October 2021, it was revealed that South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) had regarded Alex as a person of interest in the homicides since the start of the investigation. The investigation was heavily criticized by Murdaugh's defense attorney, Dick Harpootlian, during trial. The crime scene was spoiled by rain, the police reportedly failed to collect various evidence, and allowed family members and friends to walk through the scene. Indictment and arrest Murdaugh was arrested in July 2022 after the Colleton County Grand Jury issued an indictment charging him with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in the deaths of his wife, Maggie, and of his son Paul. The indictment stated that Alex shot his wife with a rifle and his son with a shotgun. Murdaugh pleaded not guilty; prosecutors said they would seek life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, not the death penalty. Trial Murdaugh's trial began January 25, 2023, at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, with instructions from the judge and opening statements from the prosecution and defense. Murdaugh was represented by Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin. The cases were overseen by Clifton Newman. Creighton Waters, chief prosecutor for the state grand jury, led the prosecuting team against Murdaugh. John Meadors, a Columbia attorney with extensive experience in murder trials, was hired by the Attorney General of South Carolina as part of the prosecuting team. Defense counsel argued that the prosecution should be prohibited from asking questions related to Murdaugh's financial crimes but the judge overruled their objections and announced he would make a formal ruling on the matter on Thursday, February 2, 2023. The judge dismissed the jury early on Thursday, February 2, in order for the prosecution to present two witnesses who testified in chambers about Murdaugh's financial crimes. The judge said that he needed to hear more testimony privately before ruling whether these witnesses would be allowed to testify before the jury. On February 6, after several days of hearing arguments without the jury present, Judge Newman ruled that the testimony related to Murdaugh's alleged financial crimes was admissible: he said that jurors were entitled to consider whether Murdaugh's financial situation was a motive for the killings. Newman also said that defense counsel had opened the door to testimony about the alleged financial crimes when they asked a witness to speculate about a possible motive for Murdaugh to commit the murders. A bomb threat on February 8 forced the court to recess for several hours. On February 13, Judge Newman announced that two jurors had been dismissed and replaced with alternate jurors because they had tested positive for COVID-19. On February 24, a new charge was filed against Murdaugh for passing contraband in the courtroom. At the defense's request, the jury visited the murder scene. Testimony The first prosecution witnesses included first responders on the scene after Murdaugh's 911 call. The prosecution asked the judge to compel a representative of Snapchat to testify about a video posted by Paul Murdaugh minutes before his death. The prosecution brought SLED witnesses to testify about firearms and ballistics, and an interview conducted with Murdaugh in a car on June 21, 2021, during which Murdaugh said of his son, "It's just so bad. I did him so bad," which Waters emphasized for the jury. The defense team disputed whether the recording said "I" or "they". The prosecution brought an expert witness to testify about data collected by Maggie's phone. The prosecution brought two close friends of Paul Murdaugh to testify about their interactions with the Murdaugh family and their communications with Paul moments before his death. A witness said he heard Alex's voice in a video taken by Paul minutes before the time the prosecution believes the murders took place. Prosecutors called former colleagues and clients of Murdaugh to testify about the defendant's financial situation just before the murders occurred, and argued that the motive was stress caused by the impending discovery of Murdaugh's financial crimes. They also called a chief executive officer of a local bank to testify about the bank's discovery of theft by Murdaugh. Prosecutors called expert witnesses, including a criminologist and pathologist. They called a SLED agent to testify about a timeline for the events of June 7, aggregating all of the data collected from various sources, including the cell-phones of the victims and the defendant, car telemetry data, and cell-phone tower pings. Prosecutors rested their case on February 17. Defense counsel called their first witness immediately after the prosecution rested their case. They called the Colleton County coroner, who testified that he had only estimated the victims' body temperatures and that the reported time of death was an estimate. On February 21, the defense ca.... Discover the Macie Melendez popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Macie Melendez books.