Once-powerful South Carolina legal scion Alex Murdaugh appeared in court Wednesday to plead not guilty to the brutal murders of his wife and son.
Looking noticeably slimmer and with cropped hair, Murdaugh, 54, struggled to raise his handcuffed right hand when asked to give pleas to four charges in the slayings of his wife Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, at the family’s hunting estate in June 2021.
“Not guilty,” he finally stated clearly before being denied his bid to be freed on bond.
His attorney, Dick Harpootlian, also told the Colleton County court that Murdaugh wanted a speedy trial because he “believes the killer, or killers, are still at large.”
Murdaugh, wearing a white shirt, beige slacks and a cloth face mask, listened on as the court heard he had been charged with using two different weapons in the shocking slaying: a rifle to shoot his wife and a shotgun to kill his son.
“The evidence in this case is substantial, and it all points back to Alex Murdaugh,” deputy state attorney general Creighton Waters told the court.
“There is forensic evidence as well as other evidence of his guilt of these murders,” insisted the prosecutor of the disgraced lawyer, who had been the one to call 911, claiming he’d stumbled across the slain bodies.
However, Murdaugh’s lawyer Dick Harpootlian insisted, “Our response to that is he’s wrong. And that’s why a jury will sit in that jury box.”
Harpootlian fought to keep the allegedly incriminating evidence from being aired until trial through fears of “polluting the jury pool.”
“We don’t really want to discuss it in public because we’re trying to get a fair trial for a client,” he told Circuit Judge Clifton Newman, who said he would rule on the bid in writing at a later date.
Harpootlian asked for Murdaugh — who has been behind bars since October, facing more than 80 charges — to be released without bond because he “can’t make” the $7 million one he is held on.
The judge dismissed his request.
Murdaugh faces 30 years to life in prison without parole if convicted — or even the death sentence, which prosecutors have yet to announce if they are seeking.
The four new indictments connected to the slayings are being added to a pile of 80 other charges lodged against Murdaugh by investigators who have scrutinized every part of his life over the past year. No trial dates have been set for any of the cases.
Charges include for stealing more than $8 million in settlements and other money from clients, committing fraud and lied to police by trying to arrange his own death so his surviving son could collect a $10 million life insurance policy.
Murdaugh was also charged last month with co-running a $2 million money laundering and drug ring.
The cases are being prosecuted by the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office because of links Murdaugh has to the local 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. The office’s jurisdiction includes Colleton County and Hampton County, where Murdaugh’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather were the elected prosecutors for 87 consecutive years.
With Post wires
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