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Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh sentenced to another 27 years for financial crimes
For years, South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh looked his anguished clients in the eyes and promised to help them with their medical bills, their suffering or simply to survive. Then he stole some, if not all, of what he won for many of them.
Those clients got to look Murdaugh in the eye Tuesday and tell him how he had destroyed their trust, as the disgraced lawyer was sentenced to 27 years in prison for stealing about $12 million.
“I’m not crying for what he stole from me. I’m crying for what he did to everybody,” said Jordan Jinks, a friend of Murdaugh’s since childhood.
The courtroom drama marked yet another step in the fall of a powerful and respected attorney whose family name dominated the legal scene in a small Hampton County for generations, and whose alleged crimes have been a perennial topic of true crime podcasts and online chat groups.
In court in an orange prison jumpsuit, Murdaugh listened as the victims recounted how the man with a commanding presence and seductive Southern charm had duped them.
Andrew J. Whitaker / AP
Jinks went to Murdaugh after incurring hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills for a neck injury he got when someone rear-ended his car. Jinks paid the bills in advance, having been assured by Murdaugh that he would obtain a settlement to pay him back. Murdaugh got the money, but kept it himself, financially ruining his friend.
“The money you stole from me, I would have gave it to you,” Jinks said. “Why bro? Why?”
State prosecutors and defense lawyers negotiated the 27-year prison sentence for Murdaugh, who is already serving a life term without parole after a jury found him guilty of killing his wife, Maggie, with a rifle, and younger son, Paul, with a shotgun in June 2021. Judge Clifton Newman, who also presided over the murder trial, accepted it.
Murdaugh adamantly denies killing his family members. His lawyers are seeking a new trial, citing allegations that the court clerk tampered with the jury. A different judge will decide whether to grant Murdaugh a hearing in which jurors, the clerk, and maybe even Newman, could be questioned under oath.
The sentence for Murdaugh’s financial crimes is a kind of insurance policy to prevent his release if his murder conviction is overturned. Under South Carolina law, Murdaugh will have to serve almost 23 years of the sentence, even if he is a model prisoner. He would be 76 before he could be released. Murdaugh had to give up his rights to appeal as part of the deal.
Newman said Tuesday that Murdaugh had the emptiest soul of anyone he has seen in his 23 years on the bench, with the exception of a man who was sentenced to death for killing an off-duty police officer and burning his body.
“The question was asked: What kind of animal are you?” Newman said, referring to additional comments Jinks made during his testimony. “You are an enigmatic person. I don’t think you understand yourself.”
For his part, Murdaugh spent nearly 45 minutes apologizing to his family for bringing them shame and dishonor, and addressing all his victims, although he did not cry as much as he did when he testified in his own defense during his murder trial.
“I want each of you who spoke to know I listened to you. I heard you. Your pain and hurt is palpable. … I promise you it resonates with me,” Murdaugh said.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters of the state Attorney General’s Office opened Tuesday’s hearing with a detailed account of all of Murdaugh’s thefts and how he moved around the more than $12 million he stole to avoid detection for nearly 10 years.
He ended more than an hour later with the precise figure: $12,425,254.32.
His clients trusted Murdaugh and he used “the trust of his family name and the law license on that wall” to keep stealing to pay off loans and credit card bills, never catching up to bad investments and heavy spending, Waters said.
Prosecutors initially charged Murdaugh with 101 financial crimes, including breach of trust, money laundering and tax evasion, involving 18 victims.
Under the plea deal, the number was reduced to 22 crimes against each of his clients.
His victims include Gloria Satterfield, the longtime family maid who died in a fall at the Murdaugh home. Murdaugh put his arm around Satterfield’s son at her funeral and promised he would take care of her family. He got about $4 million from his insurers then later admitted to stealing every penny.
Satterfield’s son Tony said he prays for Murdaugh and forgives him, but can’t forget how he was treated.
“I really don’t have the words. You lied, you cheated, you stole. You betrayed me and my family,” he said.
Sandra Taylor was killed in a crash with a drunken driver, leaving behind three children. Murdaugh told her estate he could only get a $30,000 settlement. He took $150,000 himself, prosecutors said.
“They lost a mother. And you stole every dime from them. Do you not have a soul?” asked Satterfield’s sister Ginger Hadwin.
Tuesday’s hearing did not mark the end of Murdaugh’s legal problems. He also is awaiting sentencing on federal financial crime charges, and still faces insurance fraud and other local charges after asking a friend to kill him in September 2021 so his surviving son could get $10 million in life insurance. The shot only grazed Murdaugh’s head.
In his speech Tuesday, Murdaugh again blamed his drug addiction to painkillers for all the thefts. He gave detailed apologies to his surviving son, his family, his in-laws and his law partners. He told any of his victims they were welcome to visit him behind bars.
“I hope that in time that each of you will be willing to talk to me,” Murdaugh said. “I would like as time moves on to continue to reiterate just how sorry I am and how important it is to me that you know that.”
After the speech, Waters told the judge — just as he did before sentencing at the murder trial — that Murdaugh could lie and conjure up false sincerity like no one he has ever seen.
“He’s good. He can look people in the eye. But we’ve seen it all before,” Waters said. “The main thing he was concerned about was how he thinks others perceive him.”
A Utah mother who police believe was shot and killed by her husband along with three of their children was a refugee who fled violence in Myanmar and dreamed of thriving with her family in the U.S., relatives said Thursday.
Police believe the husband killed his family before shooting himself, and a teenage son was badly wounded.
The bodies of Bu Meh, 38, along with her daughters Kristina Ree, 8, and Nyay Meh, 2, and son Boe Reh, 11, were found in their home in West Valley City, a Salt Lake City suburb, on Tuesday. A handgun was found under the father Dae Reh, 42, leading police to believe this was a murder-suicide, but no evidence of a motive has been released.
One child, 17-year-old Sha Reh, survived being shot in the head and is hospitalized with a severe brain injury, police said.
Bu Meh, a member of Myanmar’s Karenni ethnic minority, fled what her relatives described as ethnic cleansing in the Southeast Asian nation about 10 years ago. She and her small family lived for a time in a refugee camp in Thailand, then came to the United States “with little more than the clothing on their backs,” the family said in a statement.
She taught herself English, learned new skills and worked hard to support her growing family, achieving a way of life “far beyond the nightmare of her former country or the refugee camp,” the family said.
“For reasons that we cannot comprehend, her husband robbed her and their children of that security and their very lives,” her family said.
Police believe the shooting happened over the weekend.
Police initially went to the home Monday night after a relative asked them to check on the family but did not find any sign of an emergency that would allow them to enter the home. The relative went to the home Tuesday, saw Sha Reh wounded in the garage and called police, who found the bodies inside the home.
In their statement, relatives called Sha Reh their hero and said he faces a “long and complex road to recovery.” An online fundraiser is collecting donations to pay for his care and to help him go to college.
“After moving into their own home and finally enjoying a level of prosperity far beyond the nightmare of their former country or the refugee camp in Thailand in which they lived for a season, and for reasons that we cannot comprehend,” the family wrote, “her husband robbed her and their children of that security and their very lives.”
Neighbors hadn’t reported any gunshots in the area over the weekend, police spokesperson Roxeanne Vainuku said at a news conference Wednesday. The family had no previous reports of domestic violence or other disturbances.
One neighbor spoke to CBS affiliate KUTV about the shock they felt.
“How can a father shoot his children?” neighbor Mike Webster told the station. “I just can’t grasp for that concept at all. I can just see that poor little two-year-old looking at her daddy.”
This Utah case is the 38th mass killing in the United States this year. At least 165 people have died this year in U.S. mass killings, which are defined by the FBI as cases in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer.
Mark Barden, whose child was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, urged Utah lawmakers to pass Red Flag laws after the incident in Utah, KUTV reported.
“When it is recognized that an individual is in crisis, measures to safely and temporarily remove firearms from their possession are proven to save lives,” Barden said.
A journalists’ association says two journalists working for Kurdish media outlets were killed in northern Syria while covering fighting between Turkish-backed fighters and Syrian Kurdish militia.
The Turkey-based Dicle-Firat Journalists Association said Friday that Nazim Dastan and Cihan Bilgin were killed Thursday when their vehicle was reportedly targeted by a Turkish drone on a road near the Tishrin Dam.
Tishrin Dam, located some 56 miles east of Aleppo, has been the scene of clashes between the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF, and the Turkey-backed opposition forces.
There was no immediate comment from Turkish officials.
Bianet, a news website dedicated to human rights issues, said Bilgin was a reporter for the Kurdish Hawar News Agency, while Dastan worked as a freelance journalist for the Firat News Agency, which is associated with the militant group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because its main component is a group aligned to the PKK.
The group has been engaged in an armed struggle against the Turkish state since the 1980s in pursuit of its objective of securing autonomy for Kurds in the country.
CBS News
Stuffing stockings with skincare? Here’s what experts say kids should (and shouldn’t) be using.
Skin care is all the rage for teens and tweens these days. But if you’re hunting for last-minute skincare stocking stuffers, be aware that experts warn some products could cause more harm than good.
Dr. Sheilagh Maguiness, a dermatologist and president of Society for Pediatric Dermatology told CBS News earlier this year it’s important to look for age-appropriate products for young skin.
“What’s not good about caring for your skin, washing your face, wanting to establish good healthy skin care habits early? That’s great,” Maguiness said. “But what’s not great is the fact that some of the products that are being marketed to tweens and teens are not necessarily good or appropriate for their skin.”
So if you’re deciding on skincare gifts, here’s what’s safe and what’s best to skip.
Safe: Cleanser and sun protection
Using a gentle cleanser once or twice a day to wash your face is a great first step for those around age 11 or 12, Maguiness said.
“Even tweens could wash their face twice a day; as young as 8, that would be just fine,” she said.
After washing your face in the morning, Maguiness suggests applying a sunscreen with SPF 30 or greater. Then in the evening, swap that out for a gentle moisturizer.
“The only preventative product that you need in an arsenal at any age is sunscreen,” she said. “It is the No. 1 thing you can do to prevent your skin from aging and to prevent, even more importantly, the risk for skin cancer down the line.”
Skip: Harsh ingredients
Some harsh ingredients for young people to avoid include alpha and beta hydroxy acids (AHA and BHA), alcohol, highly fragranced products, and retinols and retinoids, plastic surgeon Dr. Smita Ramanadham, told CBS New York earlier this year.
“The biggest category to really avoid are those anti-aging products,” she said. “Young skin just does not need it. Young skin has collagen, elastin, it is hydrated, so we don’t need to add these extra ingredients that are really going to irritate and cause inflammation.”
Maguiness said she sees young girls come into her clinic with bags of unnecessary and potentially risky products.
“They’re actually damaging their skin barrier. They’re drying themselves out. They’re getting irritant dermatitis,” she said. “They’re using products that really just aren’t appropriate for the type of skin that they have.”