Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced South Carolina legal professional accused of murdering his spouse and son to benefit pity and distract from economic crimes threatening to topple his popularity, become found responsible Thursday of their slayings.

After taking into consideration for three hours, the jury of 7 men and five girls convicted Murdaugh, fifty four, of two counts of homicide in the fatal shootings of Margaret, 52, and their youngest son, Paul, 22, in June 2021. He faces 30 years to existence in prison with out parole.

The jury additionally convicted him of two counts of ownership of a weapon at some point of a violent crime, which deliver 5 more years in jail.

Murdaugh blinked time and again but become stone-confronted as he stood in court as the responsible verdicts had been read. Each juror become then requested whether or not the verdicts were accurate and stated sure.

Sentencing became deferred until 9:30 a.m. Friday.

Lawyers for Murdaugh moved for a mistrial after the verdicts have been read. The movement turned into denied by using the decide, who said that the verdict turned into a depend for the jury and that there was sufficient evidence for it to have determined Murdaugh guilty.

“The proof of guilt is overwhelming, and I deny the motion,” kingdom Circuit Judge Clifton Newman stated.

Newman thanked the jurors later and said their verdict changed into supported by using the proof.

“All of the proof pointed to best one end. That’s the conclusion which you all reached,” he said.

The quite short deliberation length followed a prolonged trial that began in late January and included almost six weeks of testimony from seventy five witnesses, along with Murdaugh.

In last arguments earlier Thursday, the defense depicted Murdaugh, who became disbarred ultimate year within the wake of the charges, as a family man with a loving courting together with his spouse and children.

Defense lawyer Jim Griffin burdened that the nation had no direct evidence that he pulled the cause earlier than calling 911 on the nighttime of June 7, 2021, to mention he had located his wife and son’s our bodies near kennels at their hunting estate in rural Colleton County.

Investigators had testified that Paul was struck two times with the aid of a shotgun, while Margaret changed into shot multiple instances with an AR-style rifle. Neither weapon has been found. Agents said they matched the murder guns the usage of shell casings from circle of relatives firearms.Alex Murdaugh is led out of doors the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., by means of sheriff’s deputies after he become convicted of two counts of homicide Thursday. Chris Carlson / AP

The prosecution constructed a sprawling case based totally on circumstantial proof to convince jurors that Murdaugh become guilty, the use of electronic statistics and video extracted from the sufferers’ cellphones to indicate that simplest he had the purpose, means and possibility to kill his wife and son.

According to prosecutors, Murdaugh had been swindling clients for years, and he used the cash, in element, to feed an dependancy to ache tablets.

Murdaugh had also been under strain from a lawsuit involving Paul, who on the time of his loss of life turned into facing trial on three felony counts of cruising under the affect in reference to a 2019 boat crash that killed a teenage passenger.

During the kingdom’s remaining arguments Wednesday, lead prosecutor Creighton Waters said that Murdaugh had lots to lose if his financial malfeasance turned into uncovered however that the deaths of his wife and son promptly stopped the regulation corporation’s investigation and stymied the boat crash case to his advantage.

One of the kingdom’s key portions of evidence turned into video extracted from Paul’s mobile phone of the kennels, wherein three voices — the ones of Paul, Margaret and Murdaugh — may be heard speaking approximately a canine inside the mins before eight:50 p.m.

Murdaugh repeatedly advised investigators that he become snoozing after which had long gone to go to his mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, before he back domestic to find his spouse and son useless.

Asked why his voice could be heard in the video, Murdaugh admitted at the stand remaining week to having lied approximately his region before the murders because of his drug addiction and standard paranoia.

But Waters said in final arguments that it defied notion that every other killer or killers knew to go to the circle of relatives’s estate at the exact time Murdaugh wasn’t there and use the family’s firearms and kill his wife and son.

After the verdicts, Waters said the conviction brings justice for Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, and he thanked the jurors.

“We had no doubt that if we had a hazard to provide our case in a court docket of law, that they might see thru the only closing con that Alex Murdaugh became attempting to pull — and they did,” Waters said.

The trial attracted intense coverage for a case first classified as an unsolved double homicide, but it quickly unraveled into wider allegations of economic fraud, a employed hitman plot and drug dependancy, and it revived inquiries into different curious deaths related to the Murdaugh circle of relatives.

Murdaugh’s defense group did not right now remark about the verdict.