From our correspondent in the United States,
After a legal marathon that fascinated America, the jury unanimously reached a verdict in just three hours. On Thursday, American lawyer Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of the murders of his wife and son, who were shot on June 7, 2021. He will receive his sentence on Friday: it will be between 30 years in prison and life imprisonment, prosecutors having refused to ask for the death penalty.
When the verdict was announced, the imposing lawyer, who had cried hot tears at the bar, assuring that he “never could have hurt” his loved ones, remained impassive, shaking his head and blinking. eyes. Guards then handcuffed him before escorting him to his cell in the sheriff’s office.
“The evidence of guilt is overwhelming,” Judge Clifton Newman commented after the verdict was read in court in Walterboro, South Carolina. Prosecutors say Alex Murdaugh was a broke and broke man. Who killed his wife and son to win sympathy, when the family’s reputation was tarnished by the death of a teenage girl killed in a boat accident piloted by her youngest son in a state of drunk. And above all, the partners of his law firm began to demand explanations for the millions of dollars that Alex Murdaugh has since admitted to having embezzled.
The fall of a local dynasty
For more than 100 years, the Murdaugh family has represented law and order in the lowcountry, the swampy coastal area of South Carolina, with three successive generations as the region’s chief prosecutors. Alex Murdaugh, 54, didn’t quite follow in his elders’ footsteps, simply becoming a personal injury lawyer.
When his wife and son were shot dead near the kennel of their “Moselle” residence, Alex Murdaugh seemed to have an alibi: he claimed he was taking a nap, then drove to visit his parents. He was arrested and charged a year later: a video taken from his son’s smartphone proves that he was present at the crime scene a few minutes before the tragedy. At the helm, this opiate addict tried to justify his lie, putting it down to his “paranoia”. Given the speed of the verdict, delivered in a few hours, the 12 jurors clearly did not believe him.
A saga that fascinates America
The prosecutors had to do without direct material evidence, in particular with the two missing murder weapons. But in addition to a lie and a problematic chronology for the accused, they insisted on a series of “circumstantial” evidence: the blue shirt he wore at the start of the evening disappeared, as did a family rifle. Alex Murdoch also pressured a nurse’s aide to corroborate his version of a “fabricated alibi”, the prosecution insisted.
This double murder is only the visible part of a tortuous saga where money, power and influence mingle, to which numerous podcasts and a Netflix series released last week have already been devoted. The soap opera may not have finished revealing its secrets: the investigation into the mysterious death of a classmate of the eldest son was reopened in 2021, and news has been awaited since last summer. exhumation of the body of the family’s housekeeper, who died after falling down the stairs in 2018.
The main dates of the case
July 8, 2015. Stephen Smith, 19, is found dead on a country road, killed with a blow to the head. He was a classmate of Alex Murdaugh’s eldest son, Buster. Relatives evoke in the Netflix documentary rumors of a possible secret homosexual affair, which have not been corroborated at this stage.
February 26, 2018. The Murdaughs’ housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, died two weeks after falling down the stairs of “Moselle”, their property. His death was never reported to a medical examiner, and no autopsy was performed. The ex-girlfriend of younger brother Paul Murdaugh claims the employee found a bag of pills belonging to Alex Murdaugh shortly before he fell.
February 24, 2019. Mallory Beach, 19, dies in the crash of the drunken boat Paul Murdaugh.
June 7, 2021. Maggie and Paul Murdaugh are shot dead.
June 22, 2021. Authorities are reopening the investigation into the death of Stephen Smith, based on new information obtained in the investigation into the double murder of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh.
September 4, 2021. Alex Murdaugh calls the police after being shot in the head. He has since admitted to having asked an acquaintance to kill him so that his eldest son, Buster, could receive $10 million in life insurance. But his accomplice obviously missed it.