Alex Murdaugh has been handed two life sentences after he was found guilty of the murders of his wife and son at the end of an explosive six-week trial.
On Thursday, the disgraced lawyer was convicted of the June 2021 murders of his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, following a televised trial that gripped the nation.
The mother and son were found dead near the dog kennels at their 1,700-acre Moselle hunting estate in Islandton, South Carolina. The two victims had been fatally shot, with Murdaugh refusing responsibility for killing them throughout his trial.
During sentencing on Friday morning, the judge told Murdaugh, per Sky News: "You have turned from lawyer to witness, and now have an opportunity to make your final appeal as an ex-lawyer". The former attorney repeated again that he "would never under any circumstances" harm his wife and son.
Speaking to the jury during his trial, Murdaugh insisted: "I did not kill Maggie, and I did not kill Paul. I would never hurt Maggie, and I would never hurt Paul, ever, under any circumstances," per The Telegraph.
Continuing to profess his innocence when questioned by prosecutors, Murdaugh said: "You have charged me with murdering my wife and my son, and I have sat here for these weeks listening to this financial stuff that I did wrong, that I’m embarrassed by.
"I’m happy to talk with you about that as much as you would like to talk about. I’m required to talk about it as much as you want to talk about it. But the fact is I cannot specifically remember sitting down for the details you’re asking for.
"But what I can tell you is that in all of these financial situations, I stole money that was not my money, I misled people I shouldn’t have misled, and I did wrong. I can tell you that."
During the explosive trial, the prosecution claimed that Murdaugh ended the lives of his wife and son to take any attention away from his financial crimes - a claim that the defendant's legal team denied.
When Murdaugh vehemently refuted yet again during his sentencing on Friday that he is guilty of the heinous crimes, the judge said: "It might not have been you but the monster you become when you take [a large amount of] opioid pills."
Around the time Murdaugh murdered his wife and son, the family was facing legal action from the family of a 19-year-old woman named Mallory Beach. Beach died after 22-year-old Paul crashed a boat into a bridge more than three years ago while he was drunk.
Attorneys argued that a pre-trial hearing for the case, which was scheduled to take place just three days after the killings, would have exposed Murdaugh's criminal financial misconduct. They said this was Murdaugh's motive for killing his two family members.
According to Murdaugh, the "only reason someone could be mad at" Paul enough to murder him was the fatal boat crash.
To which Prosecutor Creighton Waters responded during the trial: "So what you’re telling this jury is that it's a random vigilante?"
The widower did not provide a reason why anyone would want to kill his wife.
