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The murder trial of Alex Murdaugh has finally come to an end. And Murdaugh is guilty of being a family annihilator. The jury delivered a unanimous verdict finding he murdered his wife Maggie and son Paul at the family’s Moselle estate in Islandton, South Carolina, on June 7, 2021. 

The jury reached its verdict after almost six weeks of testimony and less than three hours of deliberation. 

It was determined that Murdaugh shot Paul twice with a 12-gauge shotgun before grabbing a .300 Blackout semiautomatic rifle and opening fire on Maggie as she tried to flee. She was shot five times, including twice in the head after she had fallen to her knees. 

Murdaugh's defense team made a last-ditch motion for a mistrial, which the judge denied. And he faces a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of life in prison on each murder count.

The sentencing has been scheduled for 9.30 am on Friday morning, where victim impact statements will also be read out.

Family annihilator testifies

During the trial, Murdaugh's surviving son Buster and his other family members united in the courtroom to support him. Buster testified in his father’s defense, saying he had been “destroyed” and “heartbroken” by the deaths of his mother and brother.

In a dramatic two days in the courtroom, Murdaugh took the stand in his own defense, seeking to convince jurors that he was not the “family annihilator” the prosecution painted him to be.

 He confessed that he had lied for the past 20 months about his alibi on the night of the murders. And admitted for the first time that he was there at the kennels with the two victims that night. 

Murdaugh made the sudden admission after jurors saw a cellphone video taken by Paul just minutes before he and his mother were killed. The video, taken at 8.44 pm, filmed a dog inside the kennels on the grounds of the Moselle estate.

During dramatic testimony, multiple witnesses identified Murdaugh’s voice in the footage before he then also confessed it was him.

Prosecutors said that Murdaugh killed his family to distract from his string of financial crimes. On the day of the murders, Murdaugh was confronted by his law firm CFO about money that he had stolen. 

Opportunity and Motive 

Three days after the murders, a hearing was slated to take place in a lawsuit over a fatal boat crash. In February 2019, Paul had allegedly been drunk driving the family boat. And it crashed, killing his 19-year-old friend Mallory Beach.

 Paul was facing felony charges over the crash.  Murdaugh was being sued by the Beach family. And their attorney had filed a “motion to compel’ to gain access to his finances. 

Over four weeks and 61 witnesses, prosecutors laid out this alleged motive for the murders.

Beyond Murdaugh’s other crimes, the state also presented jurors with a trove of circumstantial evidence tying him to the murders and revealing how he manufactured an alibi and covered his tracks in the aftermath. 

Prosecutors said that he killed Maggie and Paul with “family guns,” trying to throw investigators off the scent by using two different guns. 

After carrying out the attack, they believe he changed out of his bloody clothing. And the jurors were shown a Snapchat video taken after the murders where Murdaugh was wearing clean clothes. 

One crime leads to another 

Murdaugh also faces around 100 charges over the long-running multi-million-dollar fraud and theft of many of his client’s money.

Investigations were reopened into the 2015 death of Stephen Smith. The openly gay Smith was found dead in the middle of a road near the Moselle estate in Hampton County.

The 19-year-old suffered blunt force trauma to the head. And his death was at first ruled a hit-and-run. But the victim’s family believes it was murder. And the Murdaugh name has been featured in several tips to the police.

Another investigation was reopened into a mystery death connected to the Murdaugh family. Their longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield died in 2018 in a trip and fall accident at the Murdaugh family home. 

Murdaugh then allegedly stole around $4m from the Satterfield sons in a wrongful death settlement.