2022 was tumultuous year in Alex Murdaugh, Russell Laffitte sagas. What to expect in 2023.

The year 2022 was eventful for disgraced and disbarred South Carolina attorney Richard "Alex" Murdaugh and one of his alleged accomplices, former Hampton banker Russell L. Laffitte, and 2023 looks to be just as monumental.

Murdaugh is making SC legal and criminal history as he is charged with the high-profile, June 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, after facing state grand jury charges in connection with a decade-long, multi-county, multiple-victim financial crime spree involving more than $8.5 million allegedly stolen from clients, family and friends.

The Murdaughs, a noted Hampton County family of attorneys who served as 14th Circuit Solicitors for 85-plus years and made millions in their century-old personal injury law firm, burst into the public eye in a negative way following a February 2019 boat crash involving Murdaugh's boat and his son Paul that left Mallory Beach, 19, of Hampton County dead.

This shocking South Carolina news story became an international news story when Murdaugh's family members were gunned down at their Colleton County home in June of 2021, then Alex Murdaugh was arrested after a bizarre but botched 2021 Labor Day suicide-for-hire plot.

The downfall of Murdaugh really escalated on Nov. 19, 2021, as SC Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that the State Grand Jury unsealed its first state-level indictments against Murdaugh. The five indictments totaled 27 criminal charges: four counts of breach of trust with fraudulent intent, seven counts of obtaining signature or property by false pretenses, seven counts of money laundering, eight counts of computer crimes, and one count of forgery.

"This is Alex Murdaugh's version of Black Friday," Eric Bland, the attorney representing the Satterfield family victims, told the press at the time.

But these state charges would prove to be the first of many. On Dec. 9, 2021, Wilson’s office announced that the State Grand Jury had issued seven more indictments consisting of 21 new charges against Murdaugh.

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After a Dec. 13 bond hearing, in which Murdaugh was granted a whopping $7 million bond, the accused addressed the court at length: "I made a terrible decision that I regret, that I'm sorry for, and quite frankly I'm embarrassed about," Murdaugh said, adding, "I want to repair as much of the damage as I can, and repair as many of the relationships as I can."

Murdaugh would spend his first Christmas in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Richland County in December 2021, and 2022 would bring even more serious charges for the accused Hampton attorney.

2022 meant more serious charges for Murdaugh, conviction for Laffitte

► Jan. 21, 2022: Wilson announced that the grand jury had issued four indictments consisting of 23 new charges: 19 more counts of breach of trust with fraudulent intent and four more counts of computer crimes. These allegations reflected much earlier criminal acts than before, going back to 2011.

► March 16: Other alleged conspirators began to be named with Murdaugh, as the State Grand Jury unsealed a new superseding indictment against Murdaugh and his best friend, fellow suspended Lowcountry attorney Cory Howerton Fleming. Both are charged with additional financial crimes in the Satterfield case.

► May 4: More charges and more accomplices as the State Grand Jury issued three more superseding indictments, which included financial crime charges against former Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Lucius, as well as more against Murdaugh and Fleming. The superseding indictments contained 21 charges against Laffitte, four new charges against Murdaugh, and five new charges against Fleming. Murdaugh is now accused of stealing more than $8.5 million.

► June 28: The first drug charges are levied against Murdaugh, as the State Grand Jury unsealed indictments against Murdaugh and Curtis Edward Smith, charging them with criminal conspiracy and narcotics offenses. The joint indictments alleged that the two suspects used hundreds of illegal transactions "to facilitate the acquisition and distribution of illegally obtained narcotics," Oxycodone, in a multi-county area.

►July 12: The SC Supreme Court issues an official order disbarring Murdaugh from the practice of law in South Carolina.

►July 12: John Marvin Murdaugh, Alex's brother, told The Greenville News that agents with SLED met with family members the morning of July 12 "as a courtesy" to inform them that they intended to charge Alex Murdaugh in connection with the double homicide of Margaret Branstetter Murdaugh and Paul Terry Murdaugh.

►July 14: The Colleton County Grand Jury charged Alex Murdaugh with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in the deaths of his wife, Maggie, and his son, Paul.

►Aug. 16: New state grand jury indictments allege theft from Murdaugh's own brother and the law firm his great-grandfather founded and names two more alleged accomplices, Spencer Anwan Roberts and Jerry K. Rivers.

►Oct. 14: With a murder trial date set for Jan. 23, 2023, in Colleton County, Murdaugh's criminal defense team begins filing pretrial motions that reveal previously unpublicized information that could aid Murdaugh's case. An 11-page motion filed Oct. 14 by attorneys for Murdaugh raised the possibility of other murder suspects, and later motions sought to publicly establish Murdaugh's alibi and discredit some of the state's witnesses and evidence.

►Nov. 22: Former Palmetto State Bank CEO and alleged Murdaugh co-conspirator Russell Lucius Laffitte was found guilty on all six federal criminal charges against him after a late-night jury session in US District Court in Charleston. Laffitte was found guilty of bank fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, and three counts of misapplication of bank funds after a trial that began Nov. 8.

►Dec. 16: The SC State Grand Jury issued new indictments against Murdaugh alleging tax evasion. Murdaugh was indicted on nine counts of "willful attempt to evade or defeat a tax.'' The latest indictments, venued in Hampton County, allege that for tax years 2011-2019, Murdaugh failed to report $6,954,639 of income earned through allegedly illegal acts.

►Dec. 20: SC Attorney General Wilson announces that his office would not be seeking the death penalty if Murdaugh is convicted. "After carefully reviewing this case and all the surrounding facts, we have decided to seek life without parole for Alex Murdaugh," Wilson's office said in a press statement.

►Dec. 28: As Murdaugh spends his second holiday season in Alvin S. Glenn, he now faces more than 100 criminal charges and a dozen civil suits - 11 in state courts and one in federal court - in relation to his alleged financial crimes.

What will 2023 hold for Alex Murdaugh, Russell Laffitte?

While Laffitte has been convicted in federal court, his legal fight isn't over. In December, his attorneys filed motions seeking a new federal trial for their client, or an acquittal, after a controversy over the dismissal of two jurors.

A federal judge has yet to rule on those motions. If Laffitte's appeals are denied, he will face a sentencing hearing in 2023. This hearing has not been scheduled.

Laffitte still must stand trail on similar state charges of bank fraud and conspiracy. No trail date has been set for those charges.

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Murdaugh's double murder trial is set for Jan. 23 at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro. It is sure to be a widely followed, multiple-week trial.

Following the deposition of that trial, Murdaugh must then stand trial on the 100-plus other criminal charges levied against him. Trial dates and locations have not been set for those cases.

In civil court, Murdaugh has signed a $4.3 million confession of judgment in one lawsuit involving the Gloria Satterfield Estate, and the Mallory Beach wrongful death lawsuit may be heard as early as the summer of 2023, according to a recent report by John Monk of The State newspaper.

Trial dates have not been set for the remaining civil suits against Murdaugh.

As the Murdaugh crime saga plays out in courts around the state next year, Netflix is poised to release a documentary series on the Murdaugh case in early 2023.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Alex Murdaugh trial: 2022 was eventful year. What will 2023 bring?