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Disgraced former South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of murdering his wife and son on Thursday (March 2), NBC News reports.
Murdaugh, 54, was convicted by a jury of seven men and five women in relation to the June 2021 fatal shootings of Margaret, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, and could face 30 years to life in prison without parole. The former attorney was also convicted on two counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime, which could add more than five additional years to his sentence.
Murdaugh was indicted on July 14 in relation to the charges, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson and South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel announced at the time via CNN. Margaret and Paul Murdaugh were both found dead three days after Alex Murdaugh's father, Randolph, had also died. In December 2021, a copy of her last will and testament obtained by the Island Packet revealed that Margaret Murdaugh left her entire property to her husband before she and their son were mysteriously killed.
The S.C. Law Enforcement Division announced the new details about Maggie Murdaugh's will, which was signed in 2005, and her estate records in connection to the murders of herself and her son, though no arrests had been made at the time. The Island Packet reported Alex Murdaugh, who has been jailed since October 2021 in connection to a separate case, was entitled to the family's 1,770-acre property, which sits between Hampton and Colleton Counties in South Carolina, according to his late wife's will signed on August 15, 2005.
Alex Murdaugh had previously owned a property knowns as "Moselle" since 2013, but property records show he transferred ownership to his wife in 2016. Alex Murdaugh was arrested at a drug rehab facility in Orlando, Florida on October 14, 2021, where his attorneys confirmed he had been staying for six weeks after being shot in the head, which was later proved to be part of a conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.
The 53-year-old attorney was accused of hiring a hitman to kill him so his other son could collect on a $10 million life insurance policy and later formally charged with two counts of obtaining property by false pretenses in relation to stealing insurance funds from a settlement in the 2018 death of his late housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.