As soon as-powerful South Carolina authorized scion Alex Murdaugh appeared in court docket Wednesday to plead not responsible to the brutal murders of his spouse and son.
Wanting noticeably slimmer and with cropped hair, Murdaugh, 54, struggled to boost his handcuffed proper hand when requested to offer pleas to 4 fees within the slayings of his spouse Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, on the household’s looking property in June 2021.
“Not responsible,” he lastly said clearly earlier than being denied his bid to be freed on bond.
His legal professional, Dick Harpootlian, additionally advised the Colleton County court docket that Murdaugh needed a speedy trial as a result of he “believes the killer, or killers, are nonetheless at giant.”
Murdaugh, sporting a white shirt, beige slacks and a material face masks, listened on because the court docket heard he had been charged with utilizing two completely different weapons within the stunning slaying: a rifle to shoot his spouse and a shotgun to kill his son.
“The proof on this case is substantial, and all of it factors again to Alex Murdaugh,” deputy state legal professional basic Creighton Waters advised the court docket.
“There's forensic proof in addition to different proof of his guilt of those murders,” insisted the prosecutor of the disgraced lawyer, who had been the one to name 911, claiming he’d stumbled throughout the slain our bodies.
Nonetheless, Murdaugh’s lawyer Dick Harpootlian insisted, “Our response to that's he’s unsuitable. And that’s why a jury will sit in that jury field.”
Harpootlian fought to maintain the allegedly incriminating proof from being aired till trial via fears of “polluting the jury pool.”
“We don’t actually need to talk about it in public as a result of we’re attempting to get a good trial for a consumer,” he advised Circuit Decide Clifton Newman, who stated he would rule on the bid in writing at a later date.
Harpootlian requested for Murdaugh — who has been behind bars since October, dealing with greater than 80 fees — to be launched with out bond as a result of he “can’t make” the $7 million one he's held on.
The decide dismissed his request.
Murdaugh faces 30 years to life in jail with out parole if convicted — and even the dying sentence, which prosecutors have but to announce if they're searching for.
The 4 new indictments linked to the slayings are being added to a pile of 80 different fees lodged in opposition to Murdaugh by investigators who've scrutinized each a part of his life over the previous yr. No trial dates have been set for any of the circumstances.
Expenses embrace for stealing greater than $8 million in settlements and different cash from shoppers, committing fraud and lied to police by attempting to rearrange his personal dying so his surviving son may accumulate a $10 million life insurance coverage coverage.
Murdaugh was additionally charged final month with co-running a $2 million cash laundering and drug ring.
The circumstances are being prosecuted by the South Carolina Legal professional Normal’s Workplace due to hyperlinks Murdaugh has to the native 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Workplace. The workplace’s jurisdiction consists of Colleton County and Hampton County, the place Murdaugh’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather had been the elected prosecutors for 87 consecutive years.
With Submit wires
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