Disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh has been sentenced to life in prison after he shot dead his wife and their younger son.
The 54-year-old stood before the judge to learn his fate and was in the same courtroom where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather tried cases as the elected prosecutor for more than 80 years.
His grandfather’s portrait hung in the back of the room until the judge ordered it taken down for the trial.
Mr Murdaugh told the court before he was sentenced: "I'm innocent. I would never hurt my wife Maggie. And I would never hurt my son Paul Paul."
Prosecutor Creighton Waters said none of the victims of the crime — members of Alex Murdaugh’s family and the parents and relatives of his wife — wished to speak on behalf of the prosecution before sentencing.
He said: "The depravity, the callousness, the selfishness of these crimes are stunning.
"The lack of remorse and the effortless way in which he is, including here, sitting right over there in this witness stand - your honour, a man like that, a man like this man, should never be allowed to be among free, law abiding citizens."
Judge Clifton Newman made reference to Mr Murdaugh's addiction to painkillers in his sentencing remarks after he protested his innocence.
He said: "And it might not have been you. It might have been the monster you become.”
The judge said “the evidence of guilt is overwhelming” after the six-week trial found the 54-year-old guilty of two counts of murder.
In a case highlighted in the Netflix documentary Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, the jury took less than three hours to conclude prominent lawyer Mr Murdaugh was responsible for the deaths of son Paul, 22, and wife Maggie, 52.
His wife was shot four or five times with a rifle and son Paul was shot twice with a shotgun at the kennels near their rural Colleton County home on June 7, 2021 in South Carolina, US.
Prosecutors alleged Mr Murdaugh committed the horrific murders to distract from his financial situation after he was accused of stealing millions of dollars from clients and his law firm.
The information was about to be exposed on the day of the killings which prosecutors believed was the motivation behind the murders.
Mr Murdaugh had told police repeatedly after the killings that he was not at the kennels and was instead napping before he went to visit his elderly mum that evening.
He lied about being at the kennels for 20 months before taking the stand on the 23rd day of his trial.
In his testimony, he admitted joining Maggie and Paul at the kennels before heading back to the house shortly ahead of the fatal shootings.
He called 911 and said he discovered the bodies when he returned home.
The disgraced lawyer was seen in video, which was filmed by his son, in a different shirt just hours before the killings occurred.
During the video he was wearing a light blue shirt and khaki trousers as he attempted to plant a tree on the property.
But just an hour later after Mr Murdaugh called cops claiming he had arrived home to find his wife and son dead, he was in a white plain t-shirt.
Prosecutors pointed out the change of clothes to the jury but his defence offered no explanation to it as they failed to explain his outfit change.
Despite the prosecution not having the weapons used to kill the wife and son or blood splatter, Mr Murdaugh was found guilty after nearly 800 pieces of evidence and 75 witnesses.
The killer also admitted stealing millions of dollars from the family firm and clients, saying he needed the money to fund his drug habit.
The lawyer blamed his decades long addiction to opioids for making him paranoid, creating a distrust of police.
He said that once he went down that path, he felt trapped in the lie.
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave. Once I told a lie — I told my family — I had to keep lying,” he testified.
He was accused of stealing nearly $800,000 (£666,000) in lawyer fees on the day of the killings.
Mr Murdaugh was supposed to have deposited the money into his law firm's account but had failed to do so, according to prosecutors.
His law firm confronted him on the day of the killing and he was about to be exposed, which prosecutors believed was his motivation behind the murders.
And since the trial, prosecutors have accused Mr Murdaugh of stealing nearly $8.8 million (£7.3million) including stealing $3.7million (£3 million) in 2019.
The prominent lawyer comes from a family that dominated the local legal scene for decades.
His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were South Carolina's elected prosecutors for more than 80 years.
In addition, his family law firm grew to dozens of lawyers by suing railroads, corporations and other big businesses.
Before he was charged with murder, Mr Murdaugh was in jail awaiting trial on about 100 other charges ranging from insurance fraud to tax evasion.
Prosecutors told jurors that Mr Murdaugh was afraid all of his crimes were about to be discovered, so he killed his wife and son to gain sympathy to buy time to cover his tracks.
Creighton Waters, chief prosecutor, praised the jurors for seeing through what he described as more lies by Mr Murdaugh.
“We had no doubt that when we had a chance to present our case in the court of law that they would see through the one last con that Alex Murdaugh was trying to pull. And they did."
After yesterday's guilty verdict, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said the verdict proved no one is above the law.
Mr Wilson said: "It was all worth it. Because we got to bring justice and be a voice for Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.
"Today’s verdict proved that no one — no matter who you are in society — is above the law."
