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Prosecutors have since accused him of stealing about $8.8 million in all. He confessed beneath oath to a lot of these crimes, together with embezzling about $3.7 million in 2019. That’s the identical yr that his son Paul was charged with drunkenly crashing a ship right into a bridge, killing one in every of his passengers, 19-year-old Mallory Seashore.
Mr. Murdaugh has maintained that he believed that his son was focused by an unknown assailant or assailants due to his involvement within the crash.
The prosecution leaned on Murdaugh’s lies to persuade the jury to not belief him.
Along with an array of monetary misdeeds, Mr. Murdaugh testified to a longtime habit to painkillers and a penchant for mendacity. The prosecution seized on that admission — how readily, and simply, he had lied to the police, his household and mates — in an try and persuade the jury that he was mendacity about not having killed his spouse and son.
At one level, the lead prosecutor, Creighton Waters, held up a stack of papers regarding purchasers whom Mr. Murdaugh stole from.
“Each single one in every of these, you needed to sit down and look any person within the eye and persuade them that you simply had been on their aspect, when you weren’t, appropriate?” he requested whereas trying instantly on the jury.
“What I admit is I misled them, I did fallacious, and that I stole their cash,” Mr. Murdaugh responded.
In flip, Mr. Murdaugh’s legal professionals portrayed his acknowledgment of his lies as a willingness to come back clear — that he acknowledged his shortcomings, however had by no means been violent and would by no means have carried out the murders.
Surviving family members had been amongst Murdaugh’s most ardent defenders — to some extent.
Pals and family members stated Mr. Murdaugh was devastated by the killings, along with his brother John Marvin Murdaugh testifying that he “must create a brand new phrase to explain how distraught he was.”
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