Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh pleaded guilty to a spate of state financial charges as he is already serving two life sentences for the murder of his wife and son.
The Friday agreement revolves around nearly two dozen state financial charges against Murdaugh, including money laundering, breach of trust, conspiracy, forgery, and tax evasion. It was part of a plea deal that his defense team negotiated with prosecutors.
Alex Murdaugh Pleads Guilty
The plea deal between the state and Murdaugh's defense teams was revealed after an hours-long delay in a pretrial hearing. It was initially meant to discuss a "change of venue" motion among other issues related to the South Carolina attorney's upcoming state financial trials in Beaufort County.
Murdaugh had been facing dozens of state charges in alleged schemes to defraud victims of millions of dollars. The financial crimes he is accused of include embezzlement and computer crime.
In a statement, lead prosecutor Creighton Waters said that the plea deal would bring "finality to the matter." He added that it would ensure that the defendant would "stay in state prison for a very long time," as per CNN.
If the agreement is approved, Murdaugh would spend a total of 27 years in a South Carolina state prison over the financial charges. Waters went through the details behind the scores of charges in roughly half a dozen South Carolina counties scheme by scheme, victim by victim, and listed the agreed-upon prison time for each.
When Judge Clifton Newman asked the defendant if he agreed with the way that the lead prosecutor had described the crimes, he disagreed with "some of the narrative." However, he agreed that he wrongly took all of the money and did all of the crimes.
In his remarks, Murdaugh said that he was glad to finally have been given the chance to plead guilty to the charges against him. He said that there were a number of reasons that he was happy to plead guilty in the case.
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A Slew of FInancial Charges
The South Carolina attorney's guilty plea fortifies the prospect that he would be spending decades in prison despite his attempts to seek a retrial in his wife and son's murder case. The 55-year-old defendant admitted to stealing from a series of clients over several years while he worked as an influential lawyer in rural South Carolina, according to the New York Times.
Murdaugh's murder trial drew intense media coverage due to his lineage as the scion of a powerful legal family in the state's Lowcountry as well as his actions in the wake of the shooting deaths of his wife and son.
That particular case was initially classified as an unsolved double homicide that quickly transformed into wider allegations of financial fraud, a hired hitman plot, and drug addiction. It also revived inquiries into other curious deaths that were linked to the Murdaugh family.
The South Carolina attorney has repeatedly claimed that he is innocent in the murder case following a grand jury indictment last year. Prosecutors have argued that Murdaugh killed his wife and son to gain pity before he would be exposed for a slew of financial crimes, said NBC News.
