Prosecutors in Alex Murdaugh case allege motive for murder of his wife and son

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South Carolina prosecutors delivered a scathing response on Thursday to a request from Alex Murdughs’ attorneys to provide a motive to suggest why the since-disgraced legal scion would murder his wife and 22-year-old son on the family’s sprawling hunting estate. .

“To properly assess the motive, the jury will need to understand the distinction between who Alex Murdaugh seemed to the outside world to be a successful lawyer and scion of the region’s most prominent family and who he was in real life that he was. he was well acquainted with an allegedly sleazy lawyer and drug addict who borrowed and stole wherever he could to stay afloat and be one step ahead of detection,” according to the petition filed Thursday by the NC Attorney General’s Office. South.

Lawyers for Murdaughs on Monday asked the court to require the state to file a “statement of particulars” setting out the alleged motive he intends to present at the next murder trial in January.

In response Thursday, prosecutors tore up the claim for such an “outdated concept,” but for the first time hinted they planned to argue that Murdaugh brutally shot and killed his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and their youngest son, Paul Murdaugh, with a rifle and a shotgun. respectively, due to spiraling debt and impending exposure.

SOUTH CAROLINA PROSECUTORS DEMAND ALIBI FROM ALEX MURDAUGH, PROVIDE EXACT TIMELINE FOR MURDERS OF WIFE AND SON

The filing revealed that on the night of the double homicide, Murdaugh, 54, “within thirty seconds of beginning to speak to the first officer who arrived at the crime scene on June 7, 2021, suggested to law enforcement that the killer’s motive stemmed from the February 2019 shipwreck that resulted in the tragic death of Mallory Beach.”

Beach’s family has filed a lawsuit against the Murdaugh family for the boating accident that killed the 19-year-old. Paul Murdaugh was at the wheel and faced boating under the influence charges for allegedly slamming the boat into a bridge, ejecting all six teenagers on board.

From left, Buster Murdaugh, 26, his mother Maggie Murdaugh, his brother Paul Murdaugh and his father Alex Murdaugh. Alex is accused of shooting Maggie, 52, and their son, Paul, 22, on June 7, 2021. (Facebook)

“This case is unique in South Carolina history for many reasons,” prosecutors wrote Thursday. “One of them is that the revelation of what happened to Maggie and Paul necessarily has its roots in a corruption that started years ago and spread until June 7 was the result. The evidence should be admitted to the jury so that the jury can fairly assess why a man might murder his wife and son.”

On the date of the murders, prosecutors noted how Murdaughs law firm had asked Murdaugh to provide an explanation by that day about the destination of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees owed to the firm but stolen by Murdaugh, “and Murdaugh had neither the money nor a plausible legal explanation to meet the demand.”

“Meanwhile, a motion to compel the production of Murdaughs personal financial records was concurrently pending in the civil litigation arising from the fatal sinking, and a hearing on that motion was to be held within days,” the official said. case. said. “If granted as intended, this motion would have resulted in the exposure of Murdaugh’s financial records, which in turn would have led to his misdeeds being known to others.”

Alex Murdaugh sits in court with his legal team during a hearing before Judge Clifton Newman at the Colleton County Courthouse on Aug. 29, 2022. (Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

The hearing was scheduled for June 10, 2021, but that hearing was delayed after the homicides.

“Ultimately, the murders served as Murdaugh’s way of diverting attention from himself and buying extra time to try to prevent his financial crimes from being uncovered, which, had he been revealed, would have resulted in the personal, legal and financial ruin of Murdaugh,” the filing adds.

Prosecutors noted a dramatic change in perception after the double homicide. “Immediately, everything changed. People immediately treated the defendant as the victim of an unspeakable tragedy. Everyone backed down and rallied behind him,” the filing said. “Judgment day is gone.”

In the aftermath of the murders, prosecutors said Murdaugh “set about covering his tracks.”

On July 14, a Colleton County grand jury indicted Murdaugh, 63, on two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon in the commission of a violent crime in connection with the June 7 death. 2021, from his wife, Maggie, 52, and their son Paul, 22. (Richland County Detention Center)

In addition to Murdaugh’s “financial wrongdoings over the fifteen years leading up to his murder of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh”, prosecutors said they would also present “evidence of events on the Old Salkahatchie Road side September 4, 2021”.

It was then that Murdaugh allegedly arranged for Curtis Eddie Smith to shoot and kill him so that his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, could collect a $10 million life insurance policy.

Alex Murdaugh is escorted out of the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina on July 20, 2022. (Tracy Glantz/The State via AP)

The alleged suicide-for-hire plot was botched and Murdaugh survived. “People rallied to his aid at first. Only this time the facts came to light much more quickly,” prosecutors said Thursday.

Prosecutors gave a reason for Murdaughs financial spiral, blaming ‘a series of bad land deals[s] exacerbated by the recession has permanently changed his finances” and this launched him into a “relentless financial roller coaster”.

Murdaugh faces more than 80 counts before a state grand jury for allegedly defrauding friends, family, legal clients and his $8.7 million law firm.

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“As Murdaugh complains, he has been given over a million pages of documentary evidence, including access to transcripts of testimony before the state’s grand jury, which detail his numerous thefts to cover bad debts and the ever-increasing likelihood of his exposure as a fraud unparalleled in his community, culminating in the clashes and immediate certainty of exposure on June 7, 2021,” prosecutors wrote. “It’s not the states fault, there’s so many out there that had to be rounded up. If anything, it’s the defendants fault.”

The filing preceded a motions hearing before Circuit Judge Clifton Newman in Colleton County on Friday.

Danielle Wallace is a reporter for Fox News Digital and covers politics, crime, policing and more. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @danimwallace.

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