Alex Murdaugh’s “gathering storm” of financial crimes, opioid addiction and years of “living a lie” culminated with the moment that he murdered his wife Maggie and son Paul, according to the prosecution’s dramatic closing statement.
In Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, on Wednesday, prosecutor Creighton Waters described how the once-powerful attorney had spent years “on the hamster wheel” avoiding accountabilty as he stole millions of dollars from his law firm and its clients.
While keeping up the pretence of a respected attorney and carrying on his prominent family’s legacy, he had actually been “living a lie” for the last decade and the “pressure became overwhelming”.
The storm then “crescendoed” to that “day of reckoning” on 7 June 2021 when Mr Murdaugh turned into a “family annihilator”, shooting his wife and son dead on the grounds of the wealthy family’s sprawling 1,700-acre Moselle estate.
“On June 7 2021 at the Moselle property in Colleton County, Paul Murdaugh and Maggie Murdaugh were brutally and maliciously murdered at the kennels by the defendant Alex Murdaugh,” said Mr Waters.
“After an exhaustive investigation, there is only one person that had the motive, that had the means, that had the opportunity to commit these crimes,” he said.
“And whose guilty conduct after these crimes betrays him.
“The defendant is the one person who was living a lie. The one person who a storm was descending on. And the one person whose own storm would mean consequences for Maggie and Paul. And that person is the defendant Richard Alexander Murdaugh.”
Mr Waters pointed out the magnitude of the case which has captured attention across the US and beyond, telling jurors that what they were seeing inside the courtroom is “a different story” because the man on trial is “a different man”.
“It’s a different story like it has never been seen before. And it is because this is a different man than we have seen before,” he said.
However, he said that “family annihilators” have been around forever.
“Husbands have been killing wives for years and fathers killing sons goes back to King Herod,” he said.
“And when those pressures mount someone becomes a family annihilator.”
Mr Murdaugh is accused of shooting his wife and son back on 7 June 2021 and then trying to build an alibi for his movements that night.
Paul was shot twice with a 12-gauge shotgun, with the second fatal shot blowing his entire brain out of his skull.
Mere steps away, Maggie was shot five times with a .300 Blackout semiautomatic rifle, as she tried to flee her killer.
Mr Murdaugh continues to deny the allegations and has pleaded not guilty.
During the state’s dramatic closing statement, the prosecutor “set the stage” of what he said led up to the moment Mr Murdaugh allegedly took two “family guns” and shot his wife and son dead.
He detailed how the disgraced attorney had long been a prominent figure in the community but was in fact “living a lie”.
A “gathering storm” was building at the time of the murders, said Mr Waters, with Mr Murdaugh’s financial crimes on the brink of being exposed due to both the boat crash lawsuit and his law firm closing in on missing payments.
Mr Waters also pointed to the timeline on the day of the murders and how Mr Murdaugh’s actions in the aftermath of the killings – and even on the witness stand – further pointed to his guilt.
“The timeline puts him there. The forensic timeline puts him there. The use of his family weapons supports that,” he said.
First, Mr Waters walked jurors through the timeline of the events leading up to the murders, charting a line from Mr Murdaugh’s prominence in the community and his escalating multi-million-dollar fraud scheme to the killings of Maggie and Paul.
“He was a person of singular prominence and respect in his community,” he said.
“But he has also been a person who’s been able to avoid accountability in his life.”
Mr Waters described the “outside illusion” of Mr Murdaugh as a successful attorney but who, in reality, made some “bad deals” during the recession and ended up in financial trouble.
Mr Waters told jurors how Mr Murdaugh became “so addicted to money that he started to steal” from his law firm, he said.
This marked the start of the accused killer’s multi-million-dollar fraud scheme – a scheme which he has confessed to in the courtroom.
Throughout the trial, jurors have heard testimony from his law firm and law firm clients as to how he represented clients in lawsuits and then pocketed the settlement money for himself. The vast scheme even involved launching a fake account posing as the legitimate company Forge to siphon off money to. In total, he stole millions of dollars from his law firm PMPED and its clients and is now charged separately with more than 100 counts in that case.
Mr Waters said the scheme continued for years but reached a head after the 2019 fatal boat crash.
“This slow burn was continuing and continuing and continuing until the boat crash happened in February 2019,” said Mr Waters.
“That changed everything. That set in motion everything.”
In February 2019, Paul was allegedly drunk driving the family boat when it crashed, killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach.
Paul was facing criminal charges over the incident, while Mr Murdaugh was being sued by the Beach family.
The Beach family attorney Mark Tinsley had testified how in the run-up to the murders he had filed a motion to compel to gain access to Mr Murdaugh’s finances.
The next hearing in the case had been set for 10 June 2021 – three days after the murders.
After the boat crash, Mr Waters said that “the pace of his stealing increased” and he stole every dime of a $4m settlement for the family of his housekeeper Gloria Satterfield (who died in a mystery trip and fall at Moselle in 2018).
But also by the day of the murders, the prosecutor said that Mr Murdaugh’s financial crimes were on the brink of being exposed.
On 7 June 2021, jurors have heard how he was confronted by his law firm CFO Jeanne Seckinger about a payment that he had stolen from the firm and its clients. He was also three days away – 10 June 2021 – from the boat crash lawsuit hearing.
Mr Murdaugh’s father Randolph was also “very, very sick”, said Mr Waters.
The prosecutor said that the Murdaugh’s family legacy – and his place within it – was also under threat by the boat crash case and his financial crimes being exposed.
He was willing to “do anything to keep that hamster wheel going to avoid accountability” saying he had done so for 10 years.
Mr Waters added: “If he can just stay one step ahead one day longer… then he will never have to face that accountability that he never has to face.
“All of these factors are converging on one week and one day. And that day arrives, his father is in the hospital... There is a confrontation with Jeanne… He’s working on the boat case and then the tragedy happens. It’s not the only reason but it’s part of the reason.
“The pressures on this man were unbearable and they were all reaching a crescendo the day his wife and son were murdered by him. All on that day.”
Mr Waters told the jury how the murders of his Maggie and Paul made “all those things go away” with the lawsuit hearing postponed and his law firm putting any probe into missing payments to one side in order to rally around him.
When the financial fraud scheme was finally exposed on 3 September 2021, Mr Murdaugh then orchestrated the botched hitman plot to make himself “a victim” once again, said Mr Waters.
“When accountability was at his door he was a victim. And he told a detailed lie and went as far as to draw a composite sketch with law enforcement,” he said.
“And it worked for a bit... But this time it fell apart even quicker as his own brother figured out he was trying to buy drugs and it feel apart.”
Another aspect of this “gathering storm” was Mr Murdaugh’s opioid addiction, which Mr Waters said the defendant had admitted makes him “paranoid, agitated, and gives him energy”.
“The withdrawals would make him do anything to get rid of them,” he reminded jurors Mr Murdaugh had said.
However, Mr Waters urged jurors to question the extent Mr Murdaugh claims he was consuming drugs – sowing doubts that the accused killer repeatedly lied on the stand.
He questioned whether 1,000mg a day “sounds survivable” let alone whether someone consuming that much could have been a successful lawyer, carried out a complex fraud scheme and lived his life without those around him noticing.
“How many times on the fly did he look you in the eye and didn’t tell the truth?” he asked jurors.
Mr Waters also urged jurors to consider how – as an attorney from a long line of attorneys – Mr Murdaugh understands how the justice system works.
“This is an individual who is trained to understand how to put a case together. Think about whether or not this individual is constructing defences and constructing alibis,” he said.
Turning to the means Mr Murdaugh had to commit the crime, Mr Waters told jurors that “family guns” were used to kill Maggie and Paul.
He reminded jurors how the family had three Blackout semiautomatic rifles – and “the defendant can only account for one of them”.
The court has previously heard how Mr Murdaugh bought his sons Paul and Buster a Blackout one Christmas.
When Paul lost his, it was replaced by a third – with Paul’s friend testifying that he recalled shooting that replacement gun with him just a few months before the murders.
Ammunition found on the grounds of Moselle which were fired from that gun on matched the ammo that killed Maggie.
“A family weapon the defendant cannot account for killed Maggie,” said Mr Waters.
The Blackout and a 12-gauge shotgun were Paul’s two favourite guns and were guns that he carried.
