South Carolina legal professional Alex Murdaugh was convicted Thursday inside the double homicide of his wife and son, capping a trial that has riveted the country’s attention.

Murdaugh, 54, changed into accused of fatally taking pictures his spouse, Maggie, and son Paul, who were located dead in June 2021 on the family’s looking estate in Colleton County. Jurors deliberated for 2 hours and 50 mins at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C.

The disgraced lawyer turned into convicted on counts of murder and two weapons expenses inside the case.

After the unanimous verdict was read Thursday nighttime, Murdaugh turned into taken into custody and led away in handcuffs because the court docket remained silent. A sentencing listening to became scheduled for Friday at 9:30 a.m.

Each of the two homicide costs consists of a probable jail sentence of 30 years to existence without parole.

Earlier on Thursday, Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman eliminated a juror for what he known as mistaken conversations out of doors the courtroom. Last week, Murdaugh took the stand in his personal protection, attesting that he did not homicide his wife and son in what prosecutors alleged turned into a botched attempt to cowl up his financial fraud.

Defendant Alex Murdaugh listens as Judge Clifton Newman charges the jury earlier than they begin deliberation in Murdaugh’s double murder trial, March 2. (Joshua Boucher/The State through AP/Pool)

“I did not shoot my wife or my son every time, ever,” Murdaugh stated. He did, however, admit that he lied to investigators approximately the remaining time he noticed his own family individuals.

Before the trial, which commenced on Jan. 25, the Murdaugh circle of relatives call had been synonymous with the criminal career in South Carolina’s Low Country. From 1920 to 2006, members of the circle of relatives served as solicitors, or nearby prosecutors, in price of prosecuting all crook instances in a 5-county district that locals refer to as “Murdaugh Country.” The family also founded a outstanding law corporation that specialize in non-public harm litigation.

But the photo of strength and influence surrounding the Murdaugh extended family commenced to get to the bottom of in February 2019, when a boat allegedly pushed through Alex Murdaugh’s then 19-year-old son, Paul, crashed near Parris Island, S.C., with five passengers. One of these on board, Mallory Beach, also 19, became killed. Four of the 5 survivors had been hospitalized, and Paul Murdaugh’s blood alcohol degree turned into discovered to be 3 instances the prison restrict, in line with health facility records. He turned into later charged with three prison counts of cruising beneath the affect and pleaded no longer responsible, but become killed through his father earlier than he ought to stand trial.

The Beach circle of relatives filed a wrongful demise suit following the incident, which prosecutors say played a role inside the reason for the eventual killings of Paul and Maggie. Prosecutors allege that Alex Murdaugh shot and killed Maggie, who turned into fifty two, and Paul, now 22, in a botched scheme to cover up his own economic fraud.

Alex Murdaugh, left, with individuals of his felony team, at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., on Thursday (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP/Pool)

The Murdaugh homicide investigation has led government to look at two different suspicious deaths within the vicinity. In 2018, the Murdaugh’s former housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, died after a stated fall whilst at work. The Murdaugh circle of relatives stated she tripped over their dogs and hit her head.

According to the Satterfield family’s attorneys, Alex Murdaugh instructed Satterfield’s sons he was responsible for her dying and pledged that he turned into “going to attend to the boys” by way of suing himself to accumulate on personal liability coverage. But the circle of relatives stated they by no means acquired any money from Murdaugh, and that they filed healthy towards him in 2021. The New Yorker mentioned in January that Murdaugh stole the settlement cash, which totaled greater than $four hundred,000. Following Murdaugh’s arrest, police opened a criminal probe into Satterfield’s loss of life.

In July 2015, the body of nineteen-yr-old Stephen Smith turned into discovered within the middle of a rural motorway in Hampton County, S.C. His dying became to start with ruled a hit-and-run, but following the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, police have reopened that investigation.

People interviewed inside the Netflix docuseries “The Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal” link Alex Murdaugh’s eldest son, Buster, to Smith, and Buster is named in reviews on the case filed by means of investigators with the toll road patrol.