A South Carolina judge has ruled that Alex Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes can be presented as evidence in his trial for the murders of his wife and son.
In a major blow to the disgraced legal scion’s defence, Judge Newman ruled on Monday that the jury should be allowed to hear about Mr Murdaugh’s alleged multi-million-dollar fraud schemes as they decide his fate on charges of murder.
The judge agreed with the prosecution that the vast financial fraud scheme – where he allegedly stole over $8m from law firm clients – was relevant to their argument of establishing a motive in the case.
“I find that the jury is entitled to consider whether the apparent desperation of Mr Murdaugh because of his dire financial situation, the threat of being exposed for committing the crimes for which he was later charged, resulted in the commission of the alleged crimes,” Judge Newman said.
While the state does not need to prove motive in the case, the charges do require proof of malice.
The alleged financial crimes – showing Mr Murdaugh was “under immense pressure after being confronted about missing fees”, his “dire financial straits and looming exposure of his criminal activities” – provide “context” for the murders, the judge said.
Over the course of the last week, the judge has heard hours of testimony without the jury present about the legal dynasty heir’s alleged financial crimes as he weighed what evidence could be admitted in court.
Prosecutors argued that details of his financial crimes are key to proving the motive in the murders of Maggie and Paul, claiming that he killed his wife and son to hide the string of other crimes and scandals which were catching up with him.
Meanwhile, the defence asked the judge to throw the evidence out of the murder trial, arguing it is irrelevant and separate to the case.
At the time of the murders, Mr Murdaugh’s law firm PMPED was closing in on his alleged multi-million-dollar fraud scheme with a colleague confronting him about it on the morning of the killings.
His finances were also coming under intense scrutiny in a lawsuit brought by the family of Mallory Beach – a 19-year-old woman who died in a 2019 crash in the Murdaugh family boat.
Paul was allegedly drunk driving the boat at the time and crashed it, throwing Beach overboard. Her body washed ashore a week later. Paul was charged with multiple felonies over the boat wreck and was facing 25 years in prison at the time of his murder.
A hearing for the boat crash lawsuit was also scheduled for the week of the murders. It was postponed following Maggie and Paul’s murders.
Following the murders, Mr Murdaugh was charged with a slew of around 100 charges from multiple indictments for embezzling millions of dollars from clients at his law firm PMPED.
In total, he is accused of stealing almost $8.5m from clients in fraud schemes dating back around a decade to 2011.
The attorney, who has since been disbarred, represented the clients in wrongful death lawsuits before allegedly pocketing the settlement money for himself.
