From ‘animal’ to ‘enigma’ to ‘thief,’ everyone has their say as Murdaugh gets 27 years

The roll was called for Alex Murdaugh on Tuesday as the second-floor Beaufort County courtroom rang with statements of pent-up anger, puzzlement and pure rage as everyone — from his victims to his judge to his prosecutor and even Murdaugh himself — had their say on his years-long string of financial crimes against people who trusted him.

“What kind of animal are you?” asked Jordan Jinks, 53, a lifelong best friend of Murdaugh’s from whom Murdaugh, 55, a disbarred lawyer, had stolen $150,000 in money Jinks was due from an auto accident. At one point, Jinks broke down weeping, telling Murdaugh he would have given him the money if only he’d asked.

“I just don’t understand. You don’t have a soul?” asked Ginger Hadwin, the younger sister of the Murdaugh’s family longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. After Satterfield’s death in 2018 from a fall at the Murdaugh house, Murdaugh cooked up a scheme by which he was able to steal $4.3 million in insurance proceeds due Satterfield’s two sons, Tony Satterfield and Brian Harriott.

The questions got to the dark heart of the Murdaugh matter: how could one man betray in such monstrous ways so many people who trusted him implicitly, a question that by day’s end was not answered completely, and may never be answered.

Jinks and Hadwin were just two of Murdaugh’s victims and their lawyers who bore witness to his crimes in a crowded, hushed courtroom, telling almost unimaginable stories of a series of multi-million dollar betrayals from people who trusted him to win big legal settlements. Murdaugh has said he used much of the stolen money to buy drugs, and evidence in the case indicated he was using the money to fund an extravagant lifestyle and pay off an ever-expanding number of loans and debts.

After hearing the tales, as well as a long summary of Murdaugh’s crimes — which included money laundering, forgery, computer crime, embezzlement and tax evasion — from prosecutor Creighton Waters, Judge Clifton Newman accepted Murdaugh’s guilty plea and sentenced Murdaugh to 27 years in prison.

“The question was asked, ‘what kind of animal are you?” Newman told Murdaugh before sentencing. “You are an enigmatic person. I don’t know (if) you understand yourself.”

The judge told Murdaugh — who stood between his two lawyers, Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian — that he had once sentenced a man to the death penalty who had killed a police officer and then set his body on fire.

“He was heartless, just empty. When I see you, and I listen to you, and I reflect on all that I have seen since being assigned to these cases, you come closest to that young man,” Newman said in a calm, clear voice. “You are empty. I don’t see anything.”

Tuesday’s hours-long hearing was, if not the final act in the Murdaugh saga of theft, murder, betrayal and the ignoble fall of a once-untouchable Southern dynasty, the near final act in a Lowcountry drama that has captivated the nation for more than two years.

The hearing was live-streamed on national Court TV. More than half a dozen of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agents who had investigated the case against Murdaugh were in the audience, including lead case agents David Owen and Ryan Kelly. More than 25 reporters were on hand Tuesday, including four people writing books on the case.

In March, a Colleton County jury had convicted Murdaugh of two counts of murder in the June 2021 shooting deaths of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul at their 1,770-acre estate in rural Colleton County. Murdaugh is now serving two consecutive life sentences in state prison.

Murdaugh must still face charges in a September 2021 incident involving an alleged fake suicide attempt where authorities have alleged Murdaugh was trying to have his surviving son, Buster, collect on a $10 million life insurance policy. No date has been set for that, Waters said in a post-hearing press conference.

Earlier Tuesday, Murdaugh had listened as some of his victims and their lawyers walked to a microphone near the jury box and described his numerous betrayals and thefts — an amount estimated at between $8 million to more than $12 million — and looked intently at them.

One of Murdaugh’s victims, Angel Gary, 49, told Murdaugh through tears that he should ask God for forgiveness. Murdaugh had stolen $112,000 from her late mother’s estate. “I forgive you — just know that I do.”

When asked if he had anything to say, Murdaugh — dressed in an orange prison jump suit and wearing manacles— stood and held forth for nearly an hour, looking down occasionally at notes. He repeated, “I am so sorry,” more than 20 times. Most of the time, he looked directly at the people he was talking to, his head involuntarily bobbing up and down and stopping now and then to breathe deeply and say, “wooo!” It was the first time he had addressed his victims since the financial crimes against him began to be publicized in September 2021.

He addressed many of his victims by name, both those who were present and those who were not. He apologized to the partners at his family law firm that he had used to steal and launder millions; to his friends, nieces, nephews, uncles, and aunts; to his in-laws and son, Buster, and to the legal profession.

“As hypocritical as it sounds, it is the absolute truth,” Murdaugh said of his apology to the Satterfields.

At one point, Murdaugh looked at his former longtime law partner Danny Henderson, who was in the audience with firm lawyer Jim May of Columbia, and said, “You are my family, Danny,” and wiped his eyes, appearing to cry. Henderson was apparently the only member of Murdaugh’s former firm, Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth & Detrick, to attend the hearing. No members of Murdaugh’s family were there.

The firm was founded more than a century ago by Murdaugh’s great-grandfather, Randolph Murdaugh, and became a powerhouse plaintiff’s firm, nationally known for winning huge verdicts and settlements for persons injured in various kinds of accidents and vehicle crashes. But in late 2021, after news of Murdaugh’s thefts broke, the firm changed its name. It is now called the Parker Law Group.

“I am so sorry I destroyed our family’s reputation with these terrible things that I have done,” Murdaugh said. He had pleaded guilty to using the firm to launder millions in stolen client funds from 2011 to 2021. “I’m sorry i humiliated each of you…. And I’m sorry I Iet you down.”

Murdaugh also used his platform Tuesday to say he was innocent of killing his wife and son.

Now, Murdaugh said, he hopes that law officers can concentrate on finding the people who killed “Maggie and Pau-Pau (Murdaugh’s pet name for his slain son).”

Murdaugh singled out his brother Randy, a member of the Parker Law Group, and his surviving son, Buster, for special apologies. Because of his crimes, Randy’s integrity has been called into question, Murdaugh said, when it shouldn’t have been. And he said he was sorry that his actions have exposed Buster to various negative and baseless rumors in the media.

Victims’ lawyers had their say also.

Murdaugh “is on the Mount Rushmore of all criminals,” said attorney Eric Bland, who represents the Satterfield heirs and other victims. “He preyed on them like a wolf does on a rabbit.”

Among the worst of Murdaugh’s deeds is besmirching the state’s legal profession, Bland told the judge. “He set us back generations.”

Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg, an attorney who represents Pamela Pinckney and other victims, likened the Murdaugh story to a fairy tale with a dragon as the villain, and with “this sentence, your honor, you will show all of them that dragons can be slain.”

Attorney Mark Tinsley, who represented Arthur Badger — a single father with six children under age 11, from whom Murdaugh stole $1.325 million — told Murdaugh, “Alex, you are a broken person. I don’t think you are going to lie in bed at night and have people come to you. I don’t think those people matter (to you)... A lot of people thought they knew you. Clearly, we didn’t.”

Tinsley also said he believed that Murdaugh has stolen money stashed away, money that has not been located.

Waters, the lead prosecutor for the state grand jury in the Attorney General’s office, explained that although some may feel that a 27-year sentence is not enough, the plea deal brings finality to the numerous victims and assures that Murdaugh will serve a long, long time in prison.

Had the state gone ahead with trials, they would have been held in small rural counties who would have had to bear the heavy expense of conducting high-profile court proceedings that would have attracted crowds and the media, Waters said.

Tuesday’s plea deal contained 22 counts of financial crimes touching all Murdaugh’s known victims. As part of the plea deal, some 80 other counts were were dropped, Waters said.

Waters also said he wasn’t fooled by Murdaugh’s seemingly-sincere apologies to his victims. After all, in committing his thefts, he used his ability to gain people’s trust, Waters reminded the judge.

“He’s good — he can look people in the eye,” Waters said sarcastically. “All of these victims have seen it over and over again.”

And the main thing Murdaugh seems to be concerned about is not his victims, but “his perception in the eyes of others,” Waters said. “Not one single person knew who he really was.”

Murdaugh not only used his law firm to launder money he was stealing, but he also used the Palmetto State Bank. Both institutions have cooperated with the investigation, Waters said.

The real heroes of the financial crimes investigation, which began in the late summer of 2021, are the victims who came forth to tell their stories to the state grand jury, Waters said.

Because of the perceived power of the Murdaughs and their law firm, victims repeatedly told Waters and his investigating team about their fears, but they ultimately came forward. “That again, your honor, was true courage,” Waters said.

After the hearing, the Parker Law Group issued this statement: “We condemn Alex’s criminal conduct and stand in support of the court’s sentence.”

Palmetto State Bank Executive Vice President Jan Malinowski issued a statement through his lawyer, Greg Harris. Palmetto State Bank has assisted in this and other prosecutions at the state and federal levels and appreciates the comments from Mr. Waters acknowledging PSB’s cooperation. “

Murdaugh has pleaded guilty to a set of financial crimes in federal court roughly similar to his state financial crimes guilty plea Tuesday. Federal Judge Richard Gergel has yet to set a date to sentence Murdaugh for his federal crimes.

Judge Newman, who said he was retiring at the end of December, said, “It’s just unimaginable to me that you have done some of things that you have done. Whether it is you or someone you become upon using drugs.…I don’t even know who I’m speaking to now.”

“The question has been raised, what type of character do you have?” Newman said.

When he was a lawyer, he knew of “no greater joy” that to deliver a good result for a client, but “the only joy you were concerned about was your own.”