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Murdaugh faces charges for numerous financial crimes

On the day of the murders, the CFO of Mr. Murdaugh's law firm confronted him with an accusation of embezzling around $800,000 in legal fees that he was supposed to have deposited into the firm's account.

Mr. Murdaugh has been charged with stealing approximately $8.8 million in total, according to prosecutors. He has admitted under oath to many of those crimes, including embezzling about $3.7 million in 2019. This was the same year that his son Paul was charged with drunkenly crashing a boat into a bridge, resulting in the death of one of his passengers, 19-year-old Mallory Beach.

Throughout the case, Mr. Murdaugh has asserted that he thinks his son's death was caused by an unidentified attacker or attackers as retaliation for Paul's role in a boat crash where he was driving drunk and crashed into a bridge, killing one of his passengers, 19-year-old Mallory Beach.

The Prosecution Relied on Murdaugh's Deception to Convince the Jury to Doubt Him

Prosecutors relied on Murdaugh's history of deceit and addiction to painkillers to convince the jury that he was not to be trusted. In addition to his numerous financial misdeeds, Murdaugh confessed to a long-standing habit of lying. The prosecution used this admission to argue that his claims of innocence in the murders of his wife and son were also fabrications.

During the trial, Creighton Waters, the lead prosecutor, raised a pile of documents that pertained to the clients whom Mr. Murdaugh stole from.

“Every single one of these, you had to sit down and look somebody in the eye and convince them that you were on their side when you were not, correct?” he asked Mr. Murdaughwhile looking directly at the jury.

“What I admit is I misled them, I did wrong, and that I stole their money,” Mr. Murdaugh responded.

Mr. Murdaugh's lawyers portrayed his admission of lying as a sign of his willingness to be honest and transparent about his past mistakes. They argued that while he may have struggled with addiction and made poor decisions related to his financial dealings, he was not a violent person and did not have the motive or opportunity to commit the murders.

Surviving family members defended Murdaugh but had their doubts

Friends and family initially stood by Murdaugh following the killings, but their support was not unconditional. They said he “would have to create a new word to describe how distraught he was.”

During the trial, the surviving relatives of Alex Murdaugh provided testimony that portrayed him as a man who was devastated by the killings of his wife and son. His brother John Marvin Murdaugh testified that he had never seen his brother act violently and was shocked to learn that he had been accused of the murders. Alex Murdaugh's surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, also took the stand and testified that his father was "destroyed" and "heartbroken" after the killings. He said that when he spoke with his father about 20 minutes after prosecutors say the murders took place, Alex Murdaugh sounded "normal" - at a time that Mr. Murdaugh's lawyers say he had yet to discover the bodies of his wife and son.

His Sister Testified Against Him

However, the prosecution also called a witness who testified against Murdaugh. His sister-in-law, Marian Proctor, said that she began to question Alex Murdaugh's account of the murders about three months after they occurred. According to her, he seemed more concerned with protecting Paul's reputation than with finding out who had killed his son. She testified that she became suspicious of her brother-in-law's account after his law firm fired him and accused him of stealing millions of dollars over many years.