Law&Crime Sidebar - Alex Murdaugh Locked Up for Killing Wife and Son — Full Sentencing Recap

Episode Date: March 3, 2023

The jury wasted no time in convicting Alex Murdaugh on Thursday of murdering his wife and son in June 2021. The next morning, Judge Clifton Newman dressed down the disgraced lawyer before sending him to prison with two consecutive life sentences for the killings of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh. After court ended, key players that helped lock up Murdaugh spoke with the Law&Crime Network about their role in the case and their opinion of the disbarred South Carolina attorney. Mark Tinsley, an attorney for Mallory Beach's family, explains why he believes the deadly boat crash involving Paul Murdaugh triggered a chain reaction that ultimately led to his father killing him. Sidebar host Angenette Levy Sidebar and Tinsley recap key moments from the last 24 hours of Alex Murdaugh’s family murders trial.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Save 10% on your entire POM Pepper Spray order by using code LAWCRIME10 at http://bit.ly/3IGNFxvLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergWriting & Video Editing - Michael DeiningerGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Vanessa Bein & Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. The State v. Richard Alexander Murdoch defendant. Indictment for murder SC code 16-3-0010 CDR code 0116 guilty verdict Alec Murdoch found guilty for the murder of his wife Maggie and son Paul we break down his sentencing and the important moments after the verdict if there's one thing I know from working at law and crime all these years, it is the importance of safety. And that is where Palm Pepper Spray can help. This is a discreet but very powerful personal defense tool.

Palm Pepper Spray shoots up to 12 feet using the strongest legal formula of pepper spray. It's super safe, easy to use, ready to fire. You just point and spray. And the best part, we have a promo code for you so you can always stay safe. Save 10% by using code law crime 10 at Palmpeper spray.com. remember to call 911 if you see somebody in trouble. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy and welcome to this special edition of Law and Crime Sidebar podcast coming to you from the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina. Alec Murdoch making no concessions as he was sentenced to life in prison,

two consecutive life sentences for the murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul back on that June night in 2021. Sadly, none of the victims in this case, the surviving family members, wish to speak, That's understandable. They've been through a lot the last six weeks and really for the last year and a half. Creighton Waters, the assistant attorney general who led the prosecution team, spoke on their behalf. You heard about Paul, obviously there was a vote case, but you also heard him described as a fun-lumbing young man, a person who loved life, a person who would do anything for his friends, for anyone. And he's cut down as he was just starting to live his life. you heard about maggie you heard how sweet she was you heard that she was a girl's girl who adapted to the outdoorsman life of her sons how much she loved her sister and her brother-in-law and their children and she was cut down in the prime of her life both of them like everyone else was unaware of who he really was no one who thought they knew this man, no one who thought they were close to this man knew who he really

was. And Your Honor, that's chilling. And I've looked in his eyes, and he liked to stare me down as he would walk by me during this trial. And I could see the real Alex Murdoch when he looked in me. The depravity, the callousness, the selfishness of these crimes are stunning, the lack of remorse, and the effortless way in which he lies. including here sitting right over there in this witness stand. The state actually opted against pursuing the death penalty in this case, even though it qualified for it under the statute. Even Judge Clifton Newman said that he's seen people sentenced to death for less heinous crimes.

Alec Murdoch actually spoke to Judge Newman. There was quite a back and forth between them during the sentencing. I'm innocent. I would never hurt my wife Maggie. and I would never hurt my son, Pawpaw. Many times at sentencing, you'll hear the defendant throw himself or herself on the mercy of the court, but not Alec Murdoch.

This has been perhaps one of the most troubling cases, not just for me as a judge, for the state, for the defense team, but for all of the citizens in this community, all the citizens in this state, and as we've seen, based on the media coverage throughout the nation, you have a wife who's been killed, murdered, a son savagely murdered, a person from a respected family who has controlled justice in this community for over a century, a person whose grandfather's portrait hang at the back of the courthouse that I had to have ordered removed in order to

ensure that a fair trial was had by both the state and the defense as we know by now Alec Murdoch lied to investigators from the first night of this investigation he admitted to it he's admitted that he's a liar because he was caught in what he called a web of lies he lied about the most important thing in this case more than likely the most important thing where he was at the time of the murders remember the kennel video was recorded with Alex's voice on it recorded by Paul at 8.44 p.m. That's about four minutes, five minutes before Alec and Maggie's phones locked forever. There was really no DNA evidence or anything like that linking him to the

crime. You would expect Maggie and Paul's DNA to be on his clothing or on his body. But here's Judge Newman addressing the lies, the web of lies by Alec Murdoch. Remind me of the expression you gave on the witness stand. Was it tangled? oh what tangle web we weave? What did you mean by that? It meant when I lied I continue to lie. And the question is when will it end? When will it in? And it's ended already for the jury because they've concluded that you continue to to lie and lie throughout your testimony.

And perhaps with all the throng of people here, they, for the most part, all believe or 89% believe that you continue to lie now when your statement of denial to the court. Perhaps you believe that it does not matter. that there's nothing that can mitigate a sentence given the crime, crimes that were committed. As Judge Newman talked about the web of lies, he actually gave Alec Murdoch a chance to make another statement, to say something else. Take a listen. You know, your license to practice law has been stripped away from you. You turn from lawyer to witness and now have an opportunity to make your final appeal as an ex-lawyer.

And it's almost, it was really surprising that you're waving this right at this time. And if you opt to do so, it's on you. You're not compelled to say anything, but you have the opportunity to do so. And I tell you again, I respect this court, but I'm innocent. I would never, under any circumstances, hurt my wife Maggie, and I would never, under any circumstances, hurt my son, Pawpaw. Paul Paul. And it might not have been you.

It might have been the monster you become when you take 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 opioid pills. Maybe you become another person. I've seen that before. The person standing before me was not the person who committed the crime. though it's the same individual we'll leave that at that so Judge Newman basically said that Alec Murdoch's opioid addiction turned him into a monster that may have led him to commit these heinous crimes so did he really murder Maggie and Paul Murdoch on June 7th 2021 the jury says yes and they are the finders of fact listen as Judge Newman's sentenced

Alec Murdoch. Mr. Murdo, I sentence you to the State Department of Corrections on each of the murder indictments in the murder of your wife, Maggie Murdole, I sentence you for the term of the rest of your natural life for the murder of Paul Murdo, whom you probably loved so much. I sentence you to prison for murdering him for the rest of your natural life. Those sentences will run consecutive. Under the statute involving possession of a weapon during a violent crime, there is no sentence where a life sentence is imposed on other indictments. That is the sentence of the court and you are remanded to the State Department of Corrections.

Alec Murdoch plans to appeal as most defendants convicted of murder always do. His defense team held a press conference following the sentencing. You know, I'm somebody that's prosecuted and defended a bunch of death penalty cases. And clearly, you never do it in a circumstantial case because you're not 99 times of a hundred. The jury's not going to sentence somebody to death without a, I saw him do it, he confessed, or, you know, great forensic evidence at the minimum. They had none of that here. Secondly, in a death penalty case, it gives us the ability to individually voir dire jurors, which would have been very helpful here. And the prosecution obviously didn't want that.

So I don't disagree with, I mean, if I had been prosecuting this case, I probably wouldn't have brought it, but based on, you know, What we heard was presented to the Colleton County Grand Jury by Detective Owen that Jim crossed, blood spatter that didn't exist, testimony about guns that was wrong. I mean, I can go through the litany with you. Going back to his question, I think Swad needs to do some self-examination on the forensic processing. They did not. I mean, one of the things we complained about was with Maggie's phone would have had all her GPS data on it if they processed it within five days. And they, they, because they didn't, the GPS data got overwritten. I mean, it was just one, which would have been helpful to Alex.

Fingerprints, footprints, footprints, and all kinds of forensic things that weren't done. And joining me to talk about this is someone you saw during the trial, because you were watching it here on Law and Crime. Mark Tinsley, you saw him testifying outside the presence of the jury and then testifying in front of the jury. He knew Alec Murdoch for years and represents the family of Mallory Beach who was killed in that boat crash, involving Paul Murdoch. Mark, thanks for coming on Sidebar. We really appreciate you joining us. Thank you for having me. Your thoughts, first of all, on the sentence and the verdict. People who knew Alec, that were in the courtroom or in the world, anywhere watching this, I think that the thoughts and the things that Judge Newman expressed would have been if I had

the words I would have used. You know, it was emotional. I mean, I knew Paul when he was eight years old. Really? Yeah. And I've known Maggie for a number of years. And, you know, I'm privy to evidence and things that weren't presented to the jury. And so... Such as, or can you...

Well, you know, there would, like, Ronnie Crosby, for instance. I mean, Ronnie Crosby told Dick Carpetly and you don't want to go there. That was what he was referring to was the fact that there was hair and skin. and skin and blood, but blown up into the corner of the room. It was no way that it was a contact shot the way that the defense had described it. And so there's stuff like that. You know, there were opportunities and some things in the civil case that would indicate that Ellic had in the moments when he told Maggie's sister

that whoever did this had been thinking about it for a long time. I think he's thinking about it as early as December of 20. Really? Yeah. And why do you think that? You said you're privy to evidence. Is there something that makes you think that he was thinking of it back then? And why both Paul and Maggie?

I have my own thoughts. Well, I think that to the extent that we, the hopefully non-sociopaths of the world, can try to break this down in logical terms, which is difficult, right? I mean, it's difficult, even if we explain this is the reason. The reason is Elek Murdoch loved Ehrlich more than anybody. So if you're a quadriplegic in a bed on a ventilator who needs better health care, that the money that he's stealing could provide, you didn't matter. If you're the wife and son who are standing in the way of you continue and to live this life

that you've been living of lies, then you don't matter. ELEC matters. And so the why is still hard for people who think like normal people to accept. But I think that John Meadows did a good job. That's the why. The why is he was protecting himself. But there has to be more to it than that because I think there has to be more to it. Because Maggie, everybody said he loved her.

He loved Paul. But he loved himself more. You know, and the why Paul? It has to be Paul because it has to be a vigilante. Mark Ball said on the stand, and nobody followed up on it. But Mark Ball said when he got there, Ellick made an odd comment, I think was the way he said. It was that they, they, I mean, imagine you walk up, it's just happened, you see all this carnage. You don't know they're two guns.

You don't know that they're two shooters unless you use two guns. He planned this, he did this, and he knew it, and he pushed that narrative from the beginning. And, you know, I mean, one of my criticisms, and it's not a criticism of the prosecution, but I thought there's no inconsistency in saying he makes this odd they comment to Mark Ball initially, but he could have slipped and said, I did them so wrong in the police car versus the, you know, I versus they dispute that they had over that. I didn't see that inconsistent. But another thing, there's no life insurance.

Right. There's no life insurance. But people can wrap their head around, like a murder for life insurance. People can wrap their head around that. People cannot wrap their head around, I think. Oh, I was stealing all this money, so I had to kill my wife and son to protect myself from that. Doesn't that seem weird? It's just bizarre.

Well, it's the most depraved, heinous thing that a person could do. I mean, yeah, no, it seems weird. But think about it in the sense of the options that he had, that not being one of them, but I had offered him a payment plan. He could have gotten out of this. He could have made payments, but this is the sociopath you're dealing with. He's actively stealing money. In May of 2019, he's got $3.5 million in his pocket that he stole from Gloria Satterfield's family.

I mean, he, you know, he continues to steal money, and you heard Creighton Waters talk about how it ramped up in 2019, 20 and 21. I mean, he's a well-old stealing machine by then. You're getting away with it. Why would any rational person not use that money and make payments? You've been doing it for 15 years. There's no indication you're not going to be able to do it, but that's what mattered to Ehrlich was ELEC. Tell me, Mallory Beach. his father was here with you this morning for the sentencing. How is the Beach family doing?

Because I find what happened to Mallory Beach to be so horrifying when I listen to Anthony Cook describe what happened. They're never going to get over this, but how are they doing? How are they feeling at this point? You know, today is the four-year anniversary of when they found their body. And the testimony ended on the four-year anniversary of the boat crash. They have found a lot of comfort in the fact that through Mallory's loss, a lot of people have been helped. You know, Alex's victimization of people has stopped. Other crimes have come out. People are being held accountable.

And so that's what they've looked for, really, since day one, was accountability. Accountability in the civil case, accountability for Paul's criminal prosecution, and hopefully accountability for the people who were investigating that criminal case. You heard Creighton Waters asked me about that in my proffer in front of the judge, the investigation into the investigation. Do you think that this would have happened had it not been for the boat case? I know I'm asking you to speculate, but do you think the boat case was really, I look at this and I think if there was something that set it all in motion, it would be the boat case.

Yeah, I think so. You know, there's, to use Creighton's metaphor, I mean, there's two different storms, right? I mean, you've got this thing that's going on with the law firm and the Ferris check and Jeannie Sackinger. But if he gets the money in, if he's able to cover it, then it just, it's a one-off. I think she used that phrase. I mean, it would have been over. They would have probably sorted it out. He would have covered it up.

He had to get that money in. The murders complicated that because then the bank board begins to ask questions about their exposure because they have loaned him so much money. They're so in bed with him. And then, you know, he's $300 and whatever it was, $86,000 in overdraft. So all of a sudden he doesn't have the money to get the money back to Chris Wilson. Jeannie Secondger keeps asking questions. I think if, but for the murders, but for the, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of things that could have happened, but probably not.

What's the status of the civil suit? We know that a portion of it was settled with Buster. Sure. I settled with Maggie's estate. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought he. No, I did. I settled with, I, I settled with Buster as a part of that settlement.

Okay, that's what I thought. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the case is going forward in August the 14th against Parker's convenience store. ELEC. And technically Paul's estate is still a defendant. I sued Maggie's estate and Paul's estate when they were hiding their assets, when they were before the receivers got appointed over their assets. It's my understanding and correct me if I'm wrong that Alec Murdoch inherited some money from his father in a trust. Is that correct? Yes and no. There was a trust. So I don't, so I don't I don't think he technically inherits anything.

It's a family trust. And in terms of how they administer that family trust, I think that there's some dispute among the family that maybe because of the things that, and what it's cost them, Elyke is, you know, because for instance, he had that, you saw the line of credit that his father's estate had to pay. That was money ELEC took through Palmetta State Bank.

And so I think that there may be some sentiment, as I'm told, old that he's already gotten his share. Got it. Interesting. Well, stay tuned, right? Yeah, I guess so. Okay. Thanks so much, Mark Tensley. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar Podcast. You can listen to and download it on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcast. And of course, you can always watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel. I'm Anjanette Levy, and I will see you next time.

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