Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

The gorgeous downfall of Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced former South Carolina lawyer and convicted killer, was capped Friday, March 3, when he was sentenced to life in jail for the murders of his spouse and youngest son.

His oldest son, Buster Murdaugh, sat silently behind his father for weeks as dozens of witnesses gave their testimonies, and put his head in his arms when the jury’s verdict was learn on March 2.

Buster Murdaugh listens throughout Alex Murdaugh’s double homicide trial on the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C. on Feb. 16, 2023. (Joshua Boucher / The State through AP file)

Buster not solely made an look on the witness stand, however he’s talked about a number of occasions within the Netflix documentary, “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal,” which charts his father’s fall from grace because the scion of a multi-generational South Carolina authorized dynasty to a person going through almost 100 prison prices.

Earlier than Alex Murdaugh was disbarred by the South Carolina Supreme Courtroom in July 2022, he was a private damage legal professional. The South Carolina Lawyer Basic’s Workplace alleges Alex Murdaugh stole almost $8.5 million from his shoppers at his legislation agency over 11 years, accounting for 99 prices throughout greater than a dozen indictments. He acknowledged fraud in throughout his testimony.

Buster Murdaugh (Joshua Boucher / The State through AP)

Alex Murdaugh’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather all held positions as prime prosecutors within the southern a part of the state, giving the household massive energy over a number of counties in South Carolina for nearly a century.

Whereas Buster Murdaugh doesn’t seem within the documentary and declined to remark for the collection, viewers of the present and the trial could also be curious to know Alex Murdaugh’s solely surviving son.

Buster was in legislation college

Picture: (Andrew J. Whitaker / The Submit And Courier through AP, Pool)

Buster Murdaugh graduated from Wofford Faculty in 2018, in response to his Instagram bio, and gave the impression to be following in his household’s footsteps by enrolling on the College of South Carolina College of Legislation.

Nevertheless, by spring 2021, he had been kicked out of legislation college for plagiarizing, in response to courtroom paperwork obtained by the Wall Road Journal.

The Submit and Courier, a neighborhood South Carolina newspaper, obtained jailhouse cellphone calls from Alex Murdaugh, through which he mentioned the Murdaugh household had paid a well-connected lawyer about $60,000 to safe Buster Murdaugh’s re-admittance to the varsity.

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In a cellphone name printed by The State, Buster Murdaugh speaks to his father concerning the efforts the lawyer, Butch Bowers, had gone to: “He was presupposed to be getting in contact with (William) Hubbard (Dean of the College of South Carolina College of Legislation), and Hubbard needed to run it by admissions to have the ability to set the document clear.”

“You want to prepare for this legislation college, now OK,” Alex Murdaugh instructed his son in a later cellphone name recorded from the jail, and printed by the Submit and Courier. “I imply, you’ve received to essentially buckle down. You’ve received to deal with it like a job. You’re going to should learn these circumstances two and thrice should you don’t totally perceive them.” He added, “As a result of you understand there’s not going to be one other likelihood.”

However Jim Griffin, an legal professional for Alex Murdaugh, instructed the Submit and Courier in September 2022 the college and Buster Murdaugh had come to an settlement that he would not but return to high school.

“He has put his want to go to legislation college on maintain for now,” Griffin mentioned. “There isn’t any plan for him to begin college within the fall or within the spring.”

His connection to 2019 boat crash

Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh. (Fb)

As depicted in “Murdaugh Murders,” Buster Murdaugh’s youthful brother Paul Murdaugh was going through three felony counts of cruising beneath the affect on the time of his demise stemming from a ship crash on Feb. 23, 2019.

On the evening of the crash, then 19-year-old Paul Murdaugh took his household’s boat out for an evening of partying on the Beaufort River. Earlier than stepping into the boat, Paul Murdaugh used his older’s ID to buy alcohol for the evening, as proven in footage performed through the first episode of “Murdaugh Murders.”

Survivors of the boat crash mentioned within the documentary Paul Murdaugh was steering the boat when it crashed right into a bridge, ejecting 19-year-old Mallory Seaside from the vessel.

It took investigators eight days to search out Seaside’s physique, NBC reported in a 2022 “Dateline” episode.

The costs towards Paul Murdaugh have been dropped in August 2021 after the South Carolina Lawyer Basic’s Workplace acquired his demise certificates, NBC affiliate WSAV reported, and a settlement was reached between Seaside’s mother and father, different survivors of the crash and two of Murdaugh’s members of the family in January 2023, in response to courtroom paperwork printed by NBC affiliate WTOC.

“Murdaugh Murders” additionally mentions the mysterious 2015 demise of Buster Murdaugh’s pal from highschool, Stephen Smith, which stays unsolved. Investigators reopened the case into Smith’s demise after the deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, S.C. Legislation Enforcement Division spokesperson Tommy Crosby mentioned in a June 2021 assertion.

His connection to Alex Murdaugh’s botched murder-for-hire plot

Alex Murdaugh made nationwide headlines on Sept. 4, 2021, simply months after the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, when he was discovered with a gunshot wound to the pinnacle in Hampton County, South Carolina, NBC Information reported.

Murdaugh’s legal professional Jim Griffin instructed information retailers on the time Murdaugh had pulled over after his automobile received a flat tire, after which an individual inside a pickup truck handed by and opened hearth.

Authorities described Murdaugh‘s damage as a “superficial” head wound on Sept. 5, and mentioned he was anticipated to get better, NBC Information reported.

However by Sept. 14, authorities had totally different model of occasions: Murdaugh allegedly organized for his former shopper, Curtis Edward Smith, to kill him in order that Buster Murdaugh may accumulate on his $10 million life insurance coverage coverage, NBC Information reported.

Picture: Buster Murdaugh (Joshua Boucher / The State through AP)

Dick Harpootlian, certainly one of Murdaugh’s attorneys, mentioned on TODAY on Sept. 15 his shopper’s dependancy to opioids led him to create the plot to have a Curtis kill him so Buster Murdaugh may make a declare his life insurance coverage coverage.

Murdaugh turned himself in to authorities on Sept. 16 after he was charged with insurance coverage fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance coverage fraud and submitting a false police report, NBC Information reported.

Buster testified in his father’s protection

Buster Murdaugh was the primary witness the protection known as to the stand, and he testified on Feb. 21 his father was barely in a position to communicate the primary time he noticed him after the killings.

“He was destroyed, heartbroken,” Buster Murdaugh instructed jurors.

He additionally spoke of their loving, “close-knit” household, which precipitated Alex Murdaugh to interrupt down in tears a number of occasions through the testimony.

Picture: (Grace Beahm Alford / The Submit and Courier through AP)

Alex Murdaugh was convicted of killing Maggie and Paul Murdaugh on March 2, and was sentenced to 2 life phrases to be served consecutively — the utmost penalty — on March 3.

Buster Murdaugh put his head in his arms after the jury’s verdict was learn, and was seen hugging individuals within the courtroom after Decide Clifton Newman introduced his father’s sentence of life in jail.

This text was initially printed on TODAY.com

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